Turkish passenger plane heading for Istanbul from northern Cyprus was hijacked today and forced to land for refuelling in southern Turkey, local media reported. It was not clear how many hijackers were on board, but they said they wanted to fly to Tehran, media said. Broadcaster NTV quoted the airline as saying there were 136 passengers on board the plane, which had come from Ercan airport in Turkish-backed northern Cyprus. Local media said the plane had been forced to land in the southern Turkish city of Antalya. | More: |
Most of the passengers managed to escape after the plane landed, leaving only the hijackers and a few passengers and crew on board, officials said.
The plane, operated by the private Turkish airline company Atlas Jet, was en route from northern Cyprus to Istanbul, company manager Tuncay Doganer said.
The hijackers wanted to take the plane to Iran, but the pilot said they needed to refuel and the plane made an emergency landing in the Mediterranean resort of Antalya, he said.
There were 136 passengers and six crew aboard, he said.
When the plane landed, passengers broke down the back door of the airplane amd most of them managed to get out, one of the passengers who fled, Erhan Erkul, told NTV television. "They (the hijackers) said they were from al-Qaeda. They tried to break the cabin door," he said. "After we landed, we managed to break down the back door and jumped out. The hijackers could not intervene, they were in the front of the plane."
Another passenger who managed to escape said the two men said they had a bomb and wanted to go to Syria. "They spoke in Arabic, sometimes they spoke in English. One of them spoke a little Turkish," said the woman, who was not identified. She explained that the hijackers had agreed to free children and women but while they let them go out the front door, male passengers managed to force open the back door and flee.
Nine passengers and two crew members were still inside the plane, officials told Anatolia news agency.
"A small number of people are still inside," Mr Doganer confirmed, declining to give figures.