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Hijacked Russian plane 'lands in Saudi Arabia'
A Russian plane hijacked after taking off from Istanbul today has landed at an airport in the Muslim holy city of Medina in Saudi Arabia, Qatar's al-Jazeera television reported.
An airport official told the television by telephone: "The plane has landed at Prince Mohammed bin Abdel Aziz airport" in Medina.
Earlier a Russian airline spokeswoman said the plane had landed at the nearby Jeddah airport at 18.10 pm Moscow time (1510 GMT).
Russian diplomats in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah declined to comment on the whereabouts of the plane.
The plane, with up to 166 passengers and 12 crew on board, was bound for Moscow but was hijacked shortly after leaving Istanbul by two men armed with daggers.
The men are believed to be of Chechen origin.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...n-plane-lands-Saudi-Arabia.html#ixzz3sKPL5WHP
Three dead as Saudis storm hijacked plane
Saudi security forces stormed a hijacked Russian plane today, freeing more than 100 hostages and ending a tense drama that began when Chechen rebels armed with knives commandeered the aircraft after take-off from Istanbul and threatened to blow it up.
Three people - a flight attendant, a hijacker and a passenger - were killed and several others were injured, the Saudi Interior Ministry said.
Paramedics at the scene said a woman - the flight attendant - was knifed to death and two men were killed by gunfire. The Interior Ministry said the flight attendant was killed by the hijackers during the rescue operation.
The other hijackers were arrested, the ministry said, without giving their number.
The Saudis said they decided to storm the plane, in consultation with the Russian government, after reaching "a dead end" in on-again, off-again negotiations during the 18 hours the jetliner was parked on the tarmac at Medina International Airport.
"The goal of the storming operation was to save the lives of the passengers and the crew with the least number of casualties possible, and it concluded in record time after the hijackers threatened to blow up the plane," the Saudi Interior Ministry statement said.
The number of hijackers was variously put at two, three or four after the Vnukova Airlines plane was hijacked Thursday afternoon shortly after taking off from Istanbul on a flight to Moscow with 174 persons aboard. As many as 46 of the hostages - mostly women, children and elderly people - were freed or escaped from the Tupolev 154 jet Thursday night in Medina.
The hijackers were trying to call attention to what they considered atrocities committed by Russia in their native Chechnya, according to a Chechen representative in Jordan. At one point during the hijacking, a Chechen flag was seen taped to the side of the plane as it sat on the Medina tarmac.
"It is a humanitarian issue. Their demands include halting the genocide in Chechnya and sitting at the negotiating table with (Chechen) President (Aslan) Maskhadov to find a peaceful solution to the conflict," Aftayeva Fariza, the Chechen representative, said.
The Saudi statement did not specify the number of hijackers or persons arrested. The paramedics at the airport, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they saw one man being led away from the plane in handcuffs.
In Moscow, aides to Kremlin envoy Sergei Yastrzhembsky said one Turkish passenger, one hijacker - "apparently the younger one," and one stewardess were killed.
A surgeon who boarded the plane after the rescue operation said seven people were injured, and most of them were being treated for minor cuts and bruises.
Minutes before the plane was stormed, more than 30 members of the Saudi army's special forces unit in full battle gear, armed with semiautomatic rifles and wearing helmets and bullet proof vests, were loaded into an army bus.
About six ambulances and fire engines surrounded the plane, which was parked in an isolated area on the tarmac while Medina airport remained open to commercial flights. Two Saudi air force cargo planes were parked a few hundred meters (yards) away.
Other members of the special forces unit were huddled in tents in the services area of the airport, out of sight of the plane. Four army vehicles and four armored personnel carriers were parked behind the tents.
A passenger with bloody trousers was seen being carried away from the plane.
Topa Bilgetin Toker, general director of Turkish Civilian Aviation, said the Saudi forces stormed the plane after the pilots managed to escape from the aircraft.
Aftayeva identified the hijackers as Aslambek Arsayev, the former Chechen security minister, and his brother, Sufian. She said the information comes from a third brother, Adam, who was not among the hijackers.
She said the reason for the hijacking was not terrorism or money, but to attract world attention to the situation in Chechnya.
Vladimir Pronichev, first deputy director of Russia's Federal Security Service, told RTR state television that negotiations to extradite the hijackers were under way, but that they will take time. He said Moscow was insisting on trying the hijackers.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...audis-storm-hijacked-plane.html#ixzz3sKRflUY9
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
~~Still waters run deep. ~~from my MiPad using tapatalk
Hijacked Russian plane 'lands in Saudi Arabia'
A Russian plane hijacked after taking off from Istanbul today has landed at an airport in the Muslim holy city of Medina in Saudi Arabia, Qatar's al-Jazeera television reported.
An airport official told the television by telephone: "The plane has landed at Prince Mohammed bin Abdel Aziz airport" in Medina.
Earlier a Russian airline spokeswoman said the plane had landed at the nearby Jeddah airport at 18.10 pm Moscow time (1510 GMT).
Russian diplomats in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah declined to comment on the whereabouts of the plane.
The plane, with up to 166 passengers and 12 crew on board, was bound for Moscow but was hijacked shortly after leaving Istanbul by two men armed with daggers.
The men are believed to be of Chechen origin.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...n-plane-lands-Saudi-Arabia.html#ixzz3sKPL5WHP
Three dead as Saudis storm hijacked plane
Saudi security forces stormed a hijacked Russian plane today, freeing more than 100 hostages and ending a tense drama that began when Chechen rebels armed with knives commandeered the aircraft after take-off from Istanbul and threatened to blow it up.
Three people - a flight attendant, a hijacker and a passenger - were killed and several others were injured, the Saudi Interior Ministry said.
Paramedics at the scene said a woman - the flight attendant - was knifed to death and two men were killed by gunfire. The Interior Ministry said the flight attendant was killed by the hijackers during the rescue operation.
The other hijackers were arrested, the ministry said, without giving their number.
The Saudis said they decided to storm the plane, in consultation with the Russian government, after reaching "a dead end" in on-again, off-again negotiations during the 18 hours the jetliner was parked on the tarmac at Medina International Airport.
"The goal of the storming operation was to save the lives of the passengers and the crew with the least number of casualties possible, and it concluded in record time after the hijackers threatened to blow up the plane," the Saudi Interior Ministry statement said.
The number of hijackers was variously put at two, three or four after the Vnukova Airlines plane was hijacked Thursday afternoon shortly after taking off from Istanbul on a flight to Moscow with 174 persons aboard. As many as 46 of the hostages - mostly women, children and elderly people - were freed or escaped from the Tupolev 154 jet Thursday night in Medina.
The hijackers were trying to call attention to what they considered atrocities committed by Russia in their native Chechnya, according to a Chechen representative in Jordan. At one point during the hijacking, a Chechen flag was seen taped to the side of the plane as it sat on the Medina tarmac.
"It is a humanitarian issue. Their demands include halting the genocide in Chechnya and sitting at the negotiating table with (Chechen) President (Aslan) Maskhadov to find a peaceful solution to the conflict," Aftayeva Fariza, the Chechen representative, said.
The Saudi statement did not specify the number of hijackers or persons arrested. The paramedics at the airport, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they saw one man being led away from the plane in handcuffs.
In Moscow, aides to Kremlin envoy Sergei Yastrzhembsky said one Turkish passenger, one hijacker - "apparently the younger one," and one stewardess were killed.
A surgeon who boarded the plane after the rescue operation said seven people were injured, and most of them were being treated for minor cuts and bruises.
Minutes before the plane was stormed, more than 30 members of the Saudi army's special forces unit in full battle gear, armed with semiautomatic rifles and wearing helmets and bullet proof vests, were loaded into an army bus.
About six ambulances and fire engines surrounded the plane, which was parked in an isolated area on the tarmac while Medina airport remained open to commercial flights. Two Saudi air force cargo planes were parked a few hundred meters (yards) away.
Other members of the special forces unit were huddled in tents in the services area of the airport, out of sight of the plane. Four army vehicles and four armored personnel carriers were parked behind the tents.
A passenger with bloody trousers was seen being carried away from the plane.
Topa Bilgetin Toker, general director of Turkish Civilian Aviation, said the Saudi forces stormed the plane after the pilots managed to escape from the aircraft.
Aftayeva identified the hijackers as Aslambek Arsayev, the former Chechen security minister, and his brother, Sufian. She said the information comes from a third brother, Adam, who was not among the hijackers.
She said the reason for the hijacking was not terrorism or money, but to attract world attention to the situation in Chechnya.
Vladimir Pronichev, first deputy director of Russia's Federal Security Service, told RTR state television that negotiations to extradite the hijackers were under way, but that they will take time. He said Moscow was insisting on trying the hijackers.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...audis-storm-hijacked-plane.html#ixzz3sKRflUY9
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
~~Still waters run deep. ~~from my MiPad using tapatalk
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