ANKARA, Aug 18: Two men claiming to be Al Qaeda members who hijacked a Turkish plane on Saturday with more than 140 people on board surrendered at an airport in southern Turkey, bringing a peaceful end to a five-hour ordeal.
“We contacted and held talks with the hijackers. Their surrender was secured through methods that I do not want to go into,” said Turkish Interior Minister Osman Gunes.
“It ended without the need for an operation,” he added.
The hijackers commandeered the plane, an MD-83, shortly after it took off from an airport in the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) at 7:15am bound for Istanbul.
The hijackers, saying they were Al Qaeda members and that they had a bomb, demanded that the plane be diverted to Tehran, or failing that to Syria.
But the pilots said they had to refuel and landed at the airport of the Turkish Mediterranean resort, Antalya.
Atlasjet, the airline operating the plane, said the plane was carrying 136 passengers and six crew, but officials later said there were 140 passengers, including eight children, and five crew.
After landing in Antalya, while the hijackers were releasing women and children from the front door, most of the passengers broke down the rear door and jumped to safety.
Some of them were injured during the escape.
A few passengers and crew remained hostage for a several hours before the hijackers were persuaded to release them and turn themselves in to authorities.
Gunes said one of the hijackers was Turkish national Mehmet Resat Ozlu and the other was Mommen Abdul Aziz Talikh, who has a Syrian passport, but was believed to be of Palestinian origin.
Gunes said police were questioning the two men who surrendered to determine their motives and connections while experts were examining what the two claimed to be a bomb.
Media reports said police had found no links between the men and Al-Qaeda, and discovered that the package contained only modelling clay.
But one of the two men was reportedly carrying a knife on the plane.—AFP
ANKARA, Aug 18: Two men claiming to be Al Qaeda members who hijacked a Turkish plane on Saturday with more than 140 people on board surrendered at an airport in southern Turkey, bringing a peaceful end to a five-hour ordeal.
