Passengers safe as lone plane hijacker surrenders

A Turkish man hijacked a jet carrying 113 people from Albania to Istanbul today and forced the aircraft to land in Italy, where he surrendered and released all the passengers unharmed.

Two senior Turkish officials said the hijacker was seeking political asylum.

The Turkish Airlines Boeing 737-400 was hijacked in Greek airspace after taking off from Albania, and landed at Italy’s Brindisi airport.

An Italian security official based in Brindisi said: “The man burst into the cockpit and said, ‘there’s two of us’, leading authorities to believe the man was not acting alone.”

The official added: “There was only one hijacker. He surrendered to authorities at the airport.”

The passengers were questioned one by one to rule out any possibility that the suspect had an accomplice.

Officials with Turkish Airlines initially said the aircraft had been hijacked by two Turks to protest Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Turkey next month.

Turkish Transport Minister Binali Yildirim and Istanbul’s governor, Muammer Guler later said the plane had been commandeered by a lone man who was seeking political asylum and probably fooled the pilots into believing he had an accomplice on board.

Mr Yildirim said: “It has nothing to do with the pope’s visit; it was a simple attempt of seeking political asylum under the influence of psychological problems.”

The Brindisi security official said the hijacker, identified by Turkish authorities as Hakan Ekinci, was trying to get a message delivered to the pope, but said he did not know what the message was.