Turkish passenger plane hijacked
Pastor Dale Morgan
Turkish passenger plane hijacked*
Mark Oliver and agencies
Tuesday October 3, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
Two Turkish men who hijacked a Turkish Airlines flight from Tirana to
Istanbul tonight surrendered to Italian police. The hijackers were
protesting against the Pope's plans to visit Turkey.
The aircraft, carrying 113 passengers and six crew, was forced to land
at Brindisi airport in southern Italy after it was intercepted by Greek
and then Italian fighter jets.
The deputy governor of Istanbul said the hijackers had demanded to be
taken to Rome.
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A spokeswoman for ENAC, Italy's civil aviation body, said the hijackers
surrendered about two hours after the plane landed, and that passengers
began leaving the plane shortly after.
The deputy governor of Istanbul, Vedat Muftuoglu, said the hijackers
stormed into the cockpit about 15-20 minutes after take off from Tirana
and asked the pilots to fly to Rome, but Italian warplanes forced it to
land in Brindisi.
The captain told the hijackers that the aircraft did not have sufficient
fuel and the plane was diverted to Brindisi.
The head of Italian civil aviation authority told Sky TG24 news that it
appeared that the hijackers did not have any weapons; it was unclear how
they had managed to hijack the airliner.
The private Turkish television station NTV, quoting unidentified Turkish
security officials, said the two Turks were demanding the right to make
a protest statement against the Pope's visit to Turkey next month.
"They told the pilots that they wanted to carry out an act to protest
against the Pope and that they wanted the plane diverted to Rome and
that they (the pilots) should not resist," Mustuoglu told Turkey's
CNN-Turk television.
Authorities had been alerted when two hijack alert codes were sent from
the flight while it was in Greek airspace, Greek defence sources told
Reuters. The plane was travelling from the Albanian capital Tirana, en
route to Istanbul.
After the alert, four Greek fighter jets were scrambled and escorted the
place out of Greek airspace; Italian fighter jets then forced it to
land. Officials at the Vatican said Pope Benedict's visit to Turkey
would go ahead as planned.