Six suspects in detention after Cuban airliner hijacking

A CUBAN plane carrying 35 passengers and crew was hijacked on Wednesday night and forced to fly to Florida, where it landed in Key West under escort of US military jets, US and Cuban authorities said.

The FBI took six suspected hijackers into custody on the tarmac at Key West International Airport after the plane, flown by Cuban state airline Aerotaxi, landed safely. No injuries were reported and passengers were being held for questioning.

The plane was first spotted by Miami air traffic controllers as it headed from the communist-ruled Caribbean island across the 90 miles that separate Cuba from Key West.

US military fighter jets were scrambled from the Homestead Air Reserve Base south of Miami to escort the plane when it was spotted approaching from Cuba just before midnight.

The US government put the nation on a heightened state of alert this week in advance of an invasion of Iraq.

The DC-3 plane was on a domestic flight from the Isle of Youth to Havana when it was “diverted” to the US, an official at the Cuban Civil Aviation Institute said. “It was hijacked,” he said, offering no further details.

FBI agents handcuffed six suspects at the Key West airport, FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela said.

“They did hijack the plane from Cuba to Key West,” she said.

Key West Police spokesman Steve Torrence said agents from the FBI, Bureau of Customs and Immigration and the US Navy met the plane along with local police.

“As they were landing, one of our police cars got behind it with its blue lights on. The plane pulled over and stopped,” Torrence said. “It was a peaceful resolution.”

Torrence said the hijackers were armed with knives.

Cubans have stolen or hijacked planes on a number of occasions to leave the communist-run island and reach the United States, where they usually seek asylum.

The last Cuban plane to be diverted to the US was a Soviet-era Antonov AN-2 biplane that was flown to Key West by a Cuban pilot who first picked up seven relatives in the western town of Pinar del Rio.

The AN-2 is still used in Cuba as a commuter plane and a crop duster.

In September 2000, another Cuban pilot ditched an Antonov AN-2 in the Gulf of Mexico after getting lost. Nine of the 10 people on board were rescued, while one drowned.

Key West, the lively tourist town at the end of the 100-mile-long (160km) island chain known as the Florida Keys, has seen other Cuban hijacking and defection cases.

Security along Florida’s coast has been raised since four armed Cuban Coast Guards wearing military fatigues slipped a Cuban military vessel into Key West harbour without being detected last month. Two AK-47 rifles and ammunition were found on board.