Template:Infobox aviator
Devi Sharan (born 1962) is an Indian retired aircraft pilot who was the captain of Indian Airlines Flight 814 when it was hijacked by the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen in December 1999.
In 2024, Netflix released IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack, a drama series adapted from Sharan's biography, Flight Into Fear.
Early life[edit | edit source]
Devi Sharan was born in 1962 in the village of Sawant, near Karnal in Haryana.[1] He graduated from Dyal Singh College, Delhi, and joined Indian Airlines in 1986.[1] Early in his flying career he flew the Boeing 737-200.[2] By the late 1990s, he was flying Airbus aircraft.[1]
Indian Airlines Flight 814[edit | edit source]
Sharan was the captain of Indian Airlines Flight 814 when it was hijacked by the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen in December 1999.[3]
Later life[edit | edit source]
In 2011 during the Libyan civil war and Operation Safe Homecoming he operated an Airbus to Libya.[4]
In 2024, Netflix released IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack, a drama series adapted from Sharan's autobiography Flight Into Fear, based on the 1999 hijacking incident, with actor Vijay Varma portraying Sharan.[5]
Sharan retired in 2025, taking his last flight on 4 January, when he flew a Boeing 787 Dreamliner from Melbourne to Delhi.[2]
References[edit | edit source]
- ā 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Hachette India". www.hachetteindia.com. Archived from the original on 29 May 2025. Retrieved 28 May 2025.
- ā 2.0 2.1 "Captain Devi Sharan, pilot of hijacked IC 814, retires after 40-year career". Hindustan Times. 6 January 2025. Archived from the original on 29 May 2025. Retrieved 28 May 2025.
- ā MacDonald, Myra (2017). "Prologue". Defeat is an Orphan: How Pakistan Lost the Great South Asian War. Oxford University Press. p. 1-26. ISBN 978-1-84904-641-1.
- ā "Captain Devi Sharan's other tryst with danger with the pilot who flew IC 814 back home". The Times of India. 6 January 2025. Archived from the original on 29 May 2025. Retrieved 28 May 2025.
- ā "Who is IC 814 Hijack flight Captain Devi Sharan? The hero of 1999 hijack, played by Vijay Varma in Netflix series". The Economic Times. 1 September 2024. Archived from the original on 29 May 2025. Retrieved 27 May 2025.
Further reading[edit | edit source]
- Jaggia, Anil K.; Shukla, Saurabh (2021). IC 814 Hijacked: The Inside Story. New Delhi: Roli Books. ISBN 978-81-951248-9-3.
- Sharan, Devi; Chowdhury, Srinjoy (2000). Flight Into Fear: The Captain's Story. Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-029755-3.