# 180. Aviation's Weirdest Hijacking: Air India 224

An episode of [The Desi Crime Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1518305061), 18 Jan 2026, 1 h 05 min.

Audio: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/6a55242c7987e974eaf4ba29/e/e1bc9def-804f-42b7-bf42-3bac00d2dbfc/media.mp3

On the night of November 25, 1981, an Air India Boeing 707 descended toward Mahé in the Seychelles expecting a routine refuelling stop—and instead flew straight into a war zone. Below, a coup was unfolding. As tracer bullets and mortars lit up the night, Captain Umesh Chandra Saxena circled overhead with dwindling fuel, receiving only cryptic warnings from a control tower that had already been seized by the mercenaries. With minutes of fuel left and no safe alternative, he made a life-or-death decision to land on a battlefield. What followed was one of the strangest hostage crises in aviation history. This is the story of Air India flight 224. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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