Hijacker of Turkish plane surrenders
Ankara, Turkey
A Turkish man hijacked a commercial passenger plane on Tuesday flying from the mainly Kurdish south-eastern city of Diyarbakir, but then gave himself up to the authorities, an Ankara airport official said.
”The hijacker has surrendered,” the official said, on condition of anonymity.
The hijacker was named as Mehmet Goksin Gol by the state-run Anatolia news agency. The official said police believed he acted from personal, not political motives, and may be mentally ill.
He claimed he was carrying a hand grenade and threatened to explode the device. He made the threat in the main body of the aircraft as he was unable to get into the locked cockpit.
A passenger on the flight told NTV that the man had not made any statements to those on the flight.
Earlier, CNN Turk television said a woman hijacker had been arrested, but this could not immediately be confirmed.
The Pegasus Airline plane had been carrying about 175 passengers from the south-east city of Diyarbakir to Istanbul, Turkish broadcasters reported.
Special forces had boarded the plane on the tarmac of Ankara’s international airport and no passengers had yet been allowed off the aircraft, the official said.
The hijacking comes six months after a Turkish man hijacked a Turkish Airlines flight on its way from Tirana, Albania, to Istanbul. It was diverted to Italy. — Reuters, Sapa-dpa