Jumping off the plane ~ Senkottai ..........Die Hard !!

John McClane (born 1955) is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Die Hard film series. He is portrayed by Bruce Willis. He is known for his sardonic one-liners. 

There are many Arjun starrers with patriotic tinge.  “Paadu Paadu Baratha Panpadu” was a nice melody sung by KS Chitra to the music of Vidhyasagar,  in the movie ‘Sengottai’ – the Arjun starrer.  In the movie  Sengottai (Red Fort) released in 1996  Arjun, plays the role of a honest Police Officer.  Towards the climax, the hero would be escorted by villain’s henchmen in the plane, he manages to escape from the plane – by  ‘making the henchman fall subconscious, jumps out from the plane that is about to ascend the skies, lands on the tarmac’ then is there in time to find the sniper high on a balloon, shoots him and saves the Prime Minister delivering the address at Sengottai.   

While some heckled the plot, it is not entirely unthought-of in tinseldom.  In Die Hard (2), released in 1990, directed by Renny Harlin starring Bruce Willis as John McClane, something similar occurs.  It was  adapted from Walter Wager's novel ‘58 Minutes’. The novel had almost the same premise. A cop must stop terrorists who takes an airport hostage while his daughter's plane circles overhead. He has 58 minutes to do so before the plane crashes. McClane is waiting for his wife to land at Washington Dulles International Airport when terrorists take over the air traffic control system. He must stop the terrorists before his wife's plane and several other incoming flights that are circling the airport run out of fuel and crash.  McClane hitches a ride on a news helicopter that drops him off on the left wing of the mercenary plane and he blocks the ailerons with his jacket, preventing the plane from taking off.  One of the villains succeeds in knocking McClane off the plane, but not before McClane knocks open the fuel hatch. After takeoff, McClane uses his cigarette lighter to ignite the trail of leaking fuel, which races down the runway to the wing, ignites the rest of the fuel and destroys the jet, killing those villains on  board.   The passenger planes, still circling in the air, use the lighted trail to land, and McClane and his wife are reunited.

Such things can happen only in Cinema, or so, one thought ! ~ until this report on MailOnline was read.  A passenger on board a Jet Airways flight opened the emergency exit and leapt onto the tarmac in a worrying security breach at Mumbai Airport in India. Jet Airways’ Chandigarh to Mumbai flight 9W469 had landed around five minutes earlier before a 30 year old  man, who has been named locally as Akash Jain, sprang into action.

He is reported to have opened the emergency exit in the middle of the plane, and jumped 15 feet down onto the tarmac.  After jumping, the man made his way to the terminal and out of Mumbai Airport.  Worryingly, he was directed to the terminal by a staff member working on another flight. He then made his way into the terminal and out of the airport.

Mid-day  reported that Jain jumped off the plane at around 3.05pm, and by 3.16pm he was caught on CCTV leaving the airport. Shocked passengers alerted Jet Airways staff on board, but by the time they had reached the exit Jain was walking to the terminal.  Investigations are ongoing as to how the passenger managed to exit Mumbai Airport after leaving the plane. Speaking to news site Mid-day, airport officials have reacted with anger as to why it took Jet Airways staff 35 minutes to notify security.

The plane, a Boeing 737 flight had 144 passengers and five crew members on board.  The Airline reportedly did not give any response to newspapers.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

30^th Mar 2015.