Two Passengers Thwart Turkish Plane Hijacking
The passengers of a Turkish Airlines flight succeeded in subduing and restraining a person who intended to hijack the plane before it reached the airport in Istanbul on Wednesday.
The plane was coming from Oslo and was heading toward Istanbul when a man began shouting he had a bomb and intended to enter the pilot’s cockpit to detonate it unless his demands were met.
He put on a ski mask and demanded that the plane returned to the Norwegian capital city. Two passengers were able to restrain him. CNN releases their names: Firat Faysal Ali and Dag Gjerstad.
The man’s name is Cuma Yasar, 40, Turkish national. He confirmed that he wanted to return to Oslo, though the motif remained unclear.
Anatolia news agency reports the man was carrying a card that identified him as mentally ill.
The pilot notified the Ataturk Airport in Istanbul and the passengers were evacuated as soon as the plane landed. The hijacker was arrested and the plane searched, but no explosive was found inside.
According to a witness, the incident occurred 30 minutes before landing, there was a struggle between two passengers and someone who was holding a device in his hand that looked very much like a radio handset.
Police said that a man was sitting on top of the hijacker when the police entered the plane. There was no injury.
A private Norwegian television channel also quotes a witness who says a man was in the back of the plane, who threatened, in Turkish, to blow it up.
Flight 1754, a Boeing 737-800 was carrying 60 passengers and seven crew members. One of the passengers was a child.
