Turkey: Passenger From Hijacked Plane Recounts Incident

Text of report in English by Turkish news agency Anatolia

Antalya, 18 August: Kemal Tasyaran, one of passengers of the plane of the AtlasJet which was hijacked as it was heading for Istanbul from the [self-declared] Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) and landed at the airport in the Turkish city of Antalya, said that some passengers were slightly injured while they were forcing open the rear door of the plane to escape.

In a telephone interview with the A.A [Anatolia Agency], Tasyaran said, “two people attempted to storm into the cockpit 20-25 minutes after the plane took off from the Ercan Airport in Lefkosa. They claimed that they were carrying a bomb. They shouted at passengers that Turkey left them alone.”

“Later, some passengers managed to force open the rear door and escape. Some of them were slightly injured. The injured passengers were rushed to the health centre at the airport,” he said.

Meanwhile, sources said that the passengers will be sent to Istanbul by another plane later in the day.

The passenger plane carrying 136 passengers and 6 crew members to Istanbul from the TRNC, was hijacked by two hijackers earlier in the day. Although the hijackers wanted to fly the plane to Iranian capital city of Tehran, pilots managed to land the plane at the Antalya Airport for refuelling.

Originally published by Anatolia news agency, Ankara, in English 0755 18 Aug 07.

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