Passengers overcome Turkish plane hijacker
Posted: 15 October 2008 1917 hrs

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ANKARA: Passengers overpowered a man who tried to hijack a Turkish Airlines flight to Saint Petersburg in Russia on Wednesday, media reports quoted officials as saying.

The hijacker on the flight from the Mediterranean city of Antalya, who claimed to have a bomb, was quickly subdued and the plane continued its flight after the incident, Orhan Birdal, the head of Turkey's airports management authority, told Anatolia news agency.

The incident occurred in Belarussian airspace, the CNN Turk news channel quoted Transport Minister Binali Yildirim as saying.

The minister confirmed that the hijacker was "pacified" and that the plane continued on its route. There were 167 passengers on the Airbus A-320 jet, CNN Turk said.

The plane was due to land on time in Saint Petersburg, a spokeswoman at the airport in the Russian city told AFP.

"There was one flight from Antalya due to land at 3:20 pm (1120 GMT)... Everything is fine with this flight, we expect it to arrive on time," the spokeswoman for Pulkovo Airport said.


- AFP/so