The hijacked Airbus now lives in a hangar at Bombay's Santacruz airport.

A Ganesh Nadar

India observed a different new year this time.

For most of the world, it was a countdown to the millennium. For India it was a countdown to freedom.

One hundred and fifty four passengers were held captive, miserable and frozen on a tarmac, thousands of miles from home, in a hijacked Airbus in remote Kandahar, Afghanistan.

Luckily before the millennium rolled in, the hijackers got what they wanted and the passengers returned to Indian soil safely. Save poor Rupin Katyal. Most Indians attribute his death to fate. What else can they say when everyone returns but one?

The passengers have returned to their everyday lives, slipped back into their daily routines; some traumatised, others cheerful. One important player in the drama stands forgotten, deserted.

The plane.

"That is a security area you cannot go there. There is a court order preventing any activity on the aircraft," the voice on the phone said.

On its exterior was inscribed VT. VT? I was amazed to know that VT stands for Viceroy Territory (all Indian aircraft have this written on them) Then its registration number-- EDW. The E stands for all aircraft owned by Indian Airlines.

"You cannot go in," was the strict order.

The A300 looked like a wounded elephant. The hangar roof was very high. But the aircraft's tail fin ended only a few inches beneath the roof. It weighed over 80 tonnes and was built to carry over 60 tonnes.

The engine on the right side was open. Lots of wires and heavy machinery was exposed. The left side engine was missing. Empty space stared you in the face. All the doors were locked.

There are scars you could not see but feel. The hull looked frayed as if the Kandahar winter had been too severe.

The passengers and crew huddled inside this plane while the temperatures outside plunged below minus zero. For seven days they sat inside, with bowed heads, with the toilets stinking and no fresh air. More unbearable must have been the fear of death.

Whilst everybody connected with Flight 814 has returned to normalcy, you wonder why only this aircraft was left out of the healing process. Why was it not allowed to return to its daily routine?

That is because Indian Airlines decided to sell it. But a court order restrained the airline from doing so.

They said the aircraft had been withdrawn from the fleet because it was over 20 years old. I am sure there are other aircraft in the Indian Airlines fleet which are as old.

But those planes have not been hijacked.

The Hijack: One Year On

The Nightmare of Flight 814: The complete coverage