Two men tried to hijack a Turkish passenger plane with 142 people
Two men tried to hijack a Turkish passenger plane with 142 people aboard on Saturday but failed after pilots arranged an emergency landing in the Mediterranean resort of Antalya and the two lost control of the passengers.
The plane was en route to Istanbul from Nicosia, in northern Cyprus, when the hijackers, identified by Turkish officials as Mehmet Resat Ozlu, a Turkish national, and Abdulaziz Maliki, a Syrian holding a Palestian passport, demanded that it be diverted to Iran. They were protesting actions by the United States administration, the officials said.
The pilots reported being under attack minutes after the Atlas Jet flight, carrying 136 passengers and six crew members, took off.
The two men, shouting in Arabic, ran to the cockpit door and tried unsuccessfully to kick it open. One held a plastic bag and said it contained a bomb, passengers told NTV, the private television network.
The pilots convinced the hijackers that the plane needed to refuel and landed in Antalya. Then they kicked open the cockpit windows and fled the plane. The hijackers decided to free the women and children on board, but as people began filing out of the plane through two side doors, passengers forced open a door at the back of the plane and, in a sudden flood, most of the remaining hostages escaped.
State-run television pictures showed people jumping to the ground one after another and running away in panic.Newyorktimes
| 
