ANKARA, Turkey, Oct. 15, 2008
Drunken Hijacker Overpowered By Passengers
Man On Turkish Airlines Plane Said He Had A Bomb, But Was Really Just Bombed
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This passenger was on a Turkish Airlines flight bound for St. Petersburg, Russia, when one of her fellow passengers, who was obviously drunk, tried to hijack the plane with a note claiming he had a bomb on Oct. 15, 2008. (CBS)
Russian transport police detained him after the plane landed safely in St. Petersburg, prosecutor Alexander Bebenin told reporters at the city's Pulkovo airport.
Bebenin said the man had threatened to blow up the plane if his demands of diverting the flight to Strasbourg, France, were not met. Passengers overpowered him after he had handed a note to attendants with his demands, he said.
No explosives were found on the passenger or the plane, he said.
CBS News' Alexsei Kuznetsov, in Moscow, reports that Yeshar Rashidov, a native of Uzbekistan with a Russian passport, calmly fell asleep in his business class seat after the failed hijacking attempt. Further, Rashidov did not behave violently on the plane and did not resist arrest after it had landed.
If he is charged with, and convicted of a crime in Russia, Rashidov, who is in his mid-50s, could face a four-year prison term Kuznetsov reports.
Most of the 164 passengers aboard the flight were unaware of the hijack attempt and only found out on emerging from the plane after a two-hour wait on the tarmac, Bebenin said.
"We didn't see anything on board, and we knew nothing about the problems," said Aleftina, one of the passengers of the plane - who refused to give her last name - on leaving the airport.
"We realized that there was something wrong with our flight when we landed and they asked us to stay at our seats," she said, adding that passengers' belongings were searched.
The plane departed from Turkey's Mediterranean resort city of Antalya, a popular destination for Russian tourists.
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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- IS IT A MAN OR A WOMAN???!!!!
Sorry to yell.... - Reply to this comment
- cutetinia,
You are not so cute.
You lack common respect.
I guess your Parents must have been drop out hippies - Reply to this comment
- JUSTICE!
I remember seeing the arrest picture that bonehead who tried to light his sneaker bomb, over LAX.
The passengers kicked is Arse! - Reply to this comment
was this man named george w. bushkanov?- Reply to this comment
- Anybody dumb enough to fly on a Turkish airline deserves to die.
- Reply to this comment
- They say a ''Tattoo'' is a permanent reminder of a moments insanity, well this guy should have the word ''Hijacker'' tattooed as a mirror image on his forehead as a reminder of this moment of insanity!!!
Then he would remember not too get drunk on a Plane. - Reply to this comment
- Is that passenger in the pic a man or woman?????
Or is it just ''Pat'' or ''Chris?'' - Reply to this comment
- What was he demanding? Nachos?
- Reply to this comment
