Guards Thwart Iran Hijack Bid

Security officers on an Iranian airliner overpowered a man threatening to explode two homemade bombs tied under his clothes, foiling an attempt to hijack the domestic flight, Iran's official news agency reported Sunday.

The would-be hijacker, who cited economic problems, also told the crew he would set his alcohol-soaked cloths on fire with a lighter unless he was allowed to enter the plane's cockpit, the Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Revolutionary Guard aviation officials as saying.

The Russian-made Tupolev Tu-145 with 138 people on board was flying from Kerman in southeastern Iran to the capital of Tehran on Saturday.

The IRNA said the armed guards, present on all Iranian flights, pounced on the man as he tried to enter the cockpit during the flight late on Saturday.

Iranian passenger planes have carried plain clothes Revolutionary Guards agents since a spate of hijackings in the 1980s by Iraq-based rebels.

IRNA quoted the head of the Iranian airports security office, Brig. Hossein Khaleqi, as saying the hijacker was outsmarted by security guards who calmed him before overpowering him and arresting him.

"In preliminary investigation, the hijacker has cited economic problems as his motive for the hijacking, but more probes are under way," Khaleqi added.

Agents foiled a hijack attempt on another domestic flight in November 2000.

A Revolutionary Court sentenced three hijackers to death and 15 other people, most of them members of the same family, to prison terms ranging from 18 months to 10 years. The family had wanted to flee the country.