NEW DELHI, Oct 14: A former Indian pilot met up on the weekend with a man who hijacked his aircraft in Seychelles 25 years ago.

“We met as friends,” said the 64-year-old Captain Umesh Saxena of his encounter Saturday with South African Peter Duffy in the western Indian city of Mumbai.

“There was no anger or any bad feeling on my part,” Saxena said by telephone after the pair met at the former pilot’s home.

“I was a little excited as you can imagine — it is kind of a historic meeting.”

Saxena was piloting Air India’s scheduled flight 701 from Zimbabwe to Mumbai when Peter Duffy and 43 others entered his aircraft as it stood on the runway of Mahe airport in Seychelles on November 25, 1981.

Duffy was part of a group of South African mercenaries who were in Seychelles to overthrow then president Albert Rene.

Though they arrived in the country undetected, pretending to be part of a rugby team, a customs officer found an assault rifle in the baggage of one of the mercenaries, the Times of India reported Saturday.

A gunfight broke out at the airport soon after the coup leaders were detected and the men seized control of the Air India plane.

“The men entered the aircraft and took all onboard hostage. We had about 79 passengers on the plane. Duffy then ordered me to fly to Durban,” recalled Saxena.

The flight took off for South Africa and when it landed, “the men were taken away by the police,” Saxena said.

“Duffy, however, turned to me as he was leaving and said ‘We must meet someday.’

“All I could think of at that time was ‘I hope never’,” said Saxena.

The Indian pilot said when he first received news that Duffy wanted to meet him in the early 1990s, “I thought it was just a casual reference. You often say ‘See you’ and things like that without meaning to. I did not think anything more of it.”

However when Saxena’s son and his daughter-in-law — both now airline pilots — visited Durban in 1994, Duffy again conveyed his eagerness to meet him, Saxena said.

“But it was only two weeks ago that I realised that Duffy was serious about meeting me. A journalist friend of mine told me that Duffy would be in India and would I like to meet him.

“I said I would like to see him but that he would have to come to Mumbai. There were many things I wanted to know including if they were planning to blow up my plane. But Duffy told me there was no such plan.”

Saxena said Duffy, who now is a photographer and a martial arts expert, had spent Saturday with him and his family.

“This is the first time Duffy has come to Mumbai so I intend to show him around a bit this evening before he takes the flight back to South Africa (late Saturday night),” Saxena said.

“I will be seeing him off at the airport.” —AFP