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Turkish plane hijacking ends peacefully
2007-08-18
Two men hijacked a Turkish passenger plane bound for Istanbul on Saturday, holding several people hostage for more than four hours before surrendering, officials said. Six crew members and 136 passengers were on board the Atlasjet flight from Ercan airport in northern Cyprus when the men, claiming to have a bomb, demanded that the plane be diverted to Iran, authorities said. Pilots managed to land the plane at Antalya airport, and most of the passengers escaped when the hijackers released the women and children on board, officials said. However, the hijackers held some crew members and passengers hostage for more than four hours before eventually allowing them to leave and peacefully surrendering, officials said. "The adventure that started early in the morning finally came to an end," said Tuncay Doganer, the chief executive of the Atlasjet. "With the two hijackers surrendering, the incident ended with no bloodshed." One of the men was Turkish and the other was believed to be a Palestinian carrying a Syrian passport, Transport Minister Osman Gunes said. Their motives for hijacking the plane were not immediately clear. Gunes said the hijackers, identified as Mehmet Resat Ozlu and Abdul Aziz Maliki, told an official they "apologized to the Turkish nation" for seizing the plane. Alaaddin Yuksel, governor of Antalya province, said a passenger suspected to have ties with the hijackers was also detained and that the hijackers were being questioned by anti-terrorism police. Yuksel said the two told police in an initial questioning that they tried to force open the cockpit's door and that they told the passengers they were members of al-Qaida and had placed plastic explosives on the plane. Experts were examining the material the hijackers had claimed was a bomb, Gunes said. Earlier, Turkish Cypriot authorities said the men were Iranians protesting U.S. policies, and some passengers said the hijackers claimed they were affiliated with al-Qaida. There was no confirmation of the claims. The seizure was the latest in a string of hijackings of Turkish airplanes in recent years, despite increased security measures at airports. ___ Associated Press writers Selcan Hacaoglu in Ankara and C. Onur Ant in Istanbul contributed to this report.
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