Captain Devi Sharan, pilot of hijacked Indian Airlines flight IC 814, retires

Captain Devi Sharan, the pilot who commandeered the Indian Airlines IC 814 flight that was hijacked in December 1999, retired from service on Saturday.

A Melbourne-Delhi Boeing 787 flight marked the last time the veteran was at the wheel.

A video shared by a Times of India journalist on X showed Sharan exiting the flight as he retired.

Sharan told the publication that even as a passenger he would be looking at people around him to ensure nothing is wrong. The 65-year-old joined the erstwhile Indian Airlines in 1985 and hung up his boots 40 years later.

"IC 814 hijacking taught me life is very unpredictable and one has to be always ready to fight back. Those were the toughest days of my life and my only aim was to save lives of everyone on that aircraft. I hope and pray no crew member, passenger or anyone else ever relives those moments," he told Times of India.

Sharan has plans to take long flights around the world in the next year that will take him to Antarctica and Siberia, among other places.

The Kandahar hijacking wasn't Sharan's only brush with danger. In 2000, Sharan, with Captain S P S Suri, and cabin crew colleagues were stuck in Libya -- in the throes of a civil war -- and were waylaid by youngsters carrying AK-47s on the streets. They managed to escape unhurt.

Sharan trained in flying at Karnal in 1984 and joined Indian Airlines the next year. It would eventually become Air India in 2007. Sharan's final flight saw him operate a Dreamliner on January 4.

After his year-long world tour, Sharan plans on taking up farming in Karnal and might also join the mega training facility that Air India is creating, TOI reported.

In recent times, he had complimented Vijay Varma on essaying the pilot in Netflix's dramatised version of events in IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack.