| CNN | - |
(CNN)
-- A passenger announced Friday "that there was a bomb on board" his
plane and wanted it diverted to Sochi -- the Russian city hosting the
Winter Olympics amid terrorism fears -- Turkish officials said.
Officials: 'Air pirate' claims bomb on board, tries to have plane go to Sochi
updated 4:37 PM EST, Fri February 7, 2014
Hijacker wanted to go to Sochi
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: Ukraine says the suspect turned himself in; a Turkish governor says otherwise
- NEW: "We were trying to persuade him and he wasn't persuaded," governor says
- Passenger says there's a bomb in the plane's baggage hold, says it should fly to Sochi
- F-16 jets escort the plane to Istanbul, where it lands safely; authorities detain the suspect
Rather than abide by the
request, the Pegasus Airlines' crew sent a hijacking alert that Turkey's
Air Force Control Center received at 5:20 p.m. (10:20 a.m. ET),
Turkey's semiofficial Anadolu news agency reported.
About 20 minutes later,
the same report claimed two F-16 fighter jets scrambled to intercept the
Boeing 737-800 and escort it over the Black Sea.
Eventually, the airliner
landed safely at Istanbul's Sabiha Gokcen airport, where video showed
police and security officials milling around the jet as buses eventually
removed passengers.
Istanbul's governor
tweeted around 10 p.m. that "the air pirate has been neutralized" and
all other passengers "disembarked from the plane without any problems."
Special forces who boarded the plane took him into custody "in a swift
operation" without finding a "bomb on him," Gov. Huseyin Avni Mutlu
later told reporters.
"The operation is complete," the governor said.
Mutlu said that the
suspect -- who never made it into the cockpit and at one point
apparently thought the aircraft was destined for Sochi -- "didn't seem
to have consumed alcohol, (but) he may have used some other substances."
He'd brought a carry-on bag with personal electronics and other items
onto the Pegasus plane, according to the governor.
The incident came at a
tense time given the various threats surrounding the Winter Games, which
kicked off in earnest Friday night with its opening ceremony.
Russian security forces
have cracked down in recent weeks on suspected militants in the restive
North Caucasus republic of Dagestan -- which is located on the other
side of the Caucasus Mountains from Sochi -- and elsewhere in recent
weeks after twin suicide bombings in the city of Volgograd in December.
There have also been
concerns specifically about explosives-laden airlines. U.S. Rep. Michael
McCaul said Wednesday night that the his nation's Department of
Homeland Security issued a bulletin to airlines flying into Russia
warning that explosive materials could be concealed in toothpaste or
cosmetic tubes.
Official: Suspect is Ukrainian
The flight started in Kharkov in Ukraine, and was headed to Istanbul, according to the Transportation Ministry.
While it was in air,
"one of the passengers said that there was a bomb on board and asked the
plane to not land in Sabiha Gokcen but rather to land in Sochi,"
Transportation Ministry official Habip Soluk said on CNNTurk.
The man said the bomb was in the baggage hold, a Transportation Ministry official said.
The aircraft ended up
touching down at the Turkish airport at at 6:04 p.m., according to
Anadolu, at which point it was moved to a safe zone on the tarmac.
Cihan News Agency of
Turkey published a photograph it claimed came from inside the plane
showing a man standing in a number 11 sports jersey with empty seats
around him and two people in uniform.
Turkish officials have
not confirmed that this photograph is from inside the Pegasus airliner
or that the man at the center of it is the alleged hijacker.
The Ukrainian foreign
ministry issued a statement identifying the suspect as one of its
citizens, something that Soluk also said was the case. The Ukrainian
ministry said no explosives or guns were found aboard the plane and that
the suspect "voluntarily turned himself into police."
Mutlu, Istanbul's governor, offered a different take on how the alleged hijacker was detained.
"We had to use force
because we were trying to persuade him and he wasn't persuaded," said
Mutlu, adding Turkish authorities did not use guns and that the suspect
suffered "a light injury."
The suspect never said
anything about Circassians -- the residents in the volatile region
around the North Caucasus mountains -- or having lived in the region,
according to the governor.
CNN's Gul Tuysuz reported from Turkey, and
Michael Martinez reported and wrote from Los Angeles. CNN's Victoria
Butenko contributed from Kiev, Ukraine, and Greg Botelho contributed
from Atlanta.
end quote from:
http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/07/world/europe/turkey-flight-bomb-threat/
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