Ordeal over for hijack victims
The Atlasjet in the incident was similar to this aircraft
Saturday, 18, Aug 2007 09:35
All passengers onboard the passenger jet hijacked earlier today are safe after the two hijackers handed themselves in.
The Atlasjet aircraft, carrying 136 passengers and six crew, was travelling from Turkish-controlled northern Cyprus to Istanbul when it was hijacked by two men demanding to be flown to Tehran.
After the pilots told them that they did not have enough fuel to reach the Iranian capital the plane instead landed at Antalya in Turkey. Over 100 passengers left the plane via emergency exits after it landed.
The AFP news agency cited passengers speaking to a private television channel as saying: "They [the hijackers] said they were from al-Qaida. They tried to break the cabin door.
"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," passenger Erhan Erkul said.
Footage showed the passengers leaping from the wings of the aircraft as they streamed to safety on the runway. The pilots also escaped through the aircraft's cockpit windows.
Another passenger told NTV television that the hijackers claimed to have a bomb onboard.
"They spoke in Arabic, sometimes they spoke in English. One of them spoke a little Turkish," the woman said.
Six people, including two crew members, were reported to have remained captive on the plane, but these were freed when the hostage situation ended.
"The adventure that started early in the morning finally came to an end," Tuncay Doganer, chief executive of Atlasjet, said.
"With the two hijackers having surrendered, the incident ended with no bloodshed."
Salih Usar, transport minister for Turkish-controlled northern Cyprus, said the two men had been attempting a protest against the US.