Operation 417 Down

EK417 - Clear to Leave

CHAPTER THREE: EK What!?

It was one early July morning I was woken up by the duty guard at 03:50AM, "Sir, Sir sorry for waking you up but I think we may have a hijacked aircraft" - awaken by the news I got myself up and dressed in less than minute and I boosted down the corridor towards the mission briefing room, I was greeted by the Commander who was on duty at the time, "Good Morning LT" said Major Cameron "We have received news from the Defence Office saying that we have a hijacking of flight EK417"

Without hesitation I got straight onto the task of preparing myself and my men for possible search and rescue operation, but I was stopped by my commander who told me to wait out because the plane location was not pinpointed; I remember later that day I was given a statement release from the Ministry of Defence;

"To all Defence Personnel

As you may of heard by now at 21:50 last night flight EK417 left Perth Airport carrying 300 Passengers, roughly around 02:50 the plane sent out an emergency distress signal with code 0010 (Hijacking/Terrorist) the signal was detected around 900km off South India, they lost contact and radar detection just 9,500km off South India

Today the Indian Air Force has sent out five aircraft to locate the aircraft last known position, a search area of 6,000 square kilometers has been setup and searched, however there was no signs of the aircraft

The Aircraft was operating on a Boeing 777-300ER registered as A6-ACZ (0.5 years old) - the Australian Government were being held responsible for this search operation and the airline is expected to release passenger information later today"

News were not great, AT ALL, 300 lives on the line, dead or alive, God knows.... my priority was to stand-by while waiting for any orders from the department of defence, I was tasked to revised my men to preform a search & rescue operation in dangerous waters and combat zone.

CHAPTER FOUR: Could This Be it?

Day 4 after the missing Emirates plane was presumed hijacked, currently over 4 countries have been involved with the search in the North Indian Ocean, the search area has been expanded to 2,000 square kilometers - 15 Aircraft's, 27 Ships and 2 Satellites have joined the search - back in Perth the United States have assisted the Department Of Defence in locating the aircraft, a passenger list has been released, there were a total of 5 nationalities on the aircraft; Australian, Emirati, Indian, Pakistanis, Afghan

Each Passengers were being identified and investigated by men from the Australian ASIO and American CIA, it was not long until we had a list of names of interest.

9 Men all from mixed nationalities are being placed on the suspect list to be investigated, they all had at least 7 heavy criminal records and had a history of airline travel crimes. However later in the day the Department of Defence release 6 of passengers were found to be carrying a false passport, this was reported by the Australian Customs when they provided the CIA with their logbooks.

Meanwhile many relatives of the passengers were being cared for in Perth, they were given many support from the staff and the community, relatives who were in another country was given a special visit type of Visa to come to Perth to be updated with 24/7 information, this was sponsored by the Australian Government

CHAPTER FIVE: Long Hours, Long Nights

Exactly one week (7 Days) after the incident - over 27 countries have joined the search and investigation, an announcement from the Indian Defence Force was release in the morning announcing they have found no traces nor any signs that flight EK417 is in the area and that the 8,000 square kilometer search radius (expanded an extra 2,000km) had been closed and confirmed that the area is clear, however India would assist the Australian Government by sharing their information relating to EK417.