Hijacked Russian plane seized

MOSCOW, Dec 10: An armed hijacker demanding 10 million dollars seized a plane carrying at least 140 people en route to Moscow today, but wa...

MOSCOW, Dec 10: An armed hijacker demanding 10 million dollars seized a plane carrying at least 140 people en route to Moscow today, but was seized in a massive security operation at the airport in the Russian capital soon after the aircraft8217;s arrival.

All passengers were released unharmed, airport police said.

The plane, belonging to an obscure airline called Rossia State Transportation Co., was commandeered en route from Magadan in far eastern Russia.

Authorities initially said three men carried out the hijacking. But after the plane arrived at Moscow8217;s Shermetyevo-1 airport, they said there was only one hijacker, an unidentified man in his mid-40s, who claimed to have explosives strapped to him.

At least 43 passengers were released soon after the plane landed at about 11.30 hours local time. That left scores of hostages aboard the airliner, which was towed to a far corner of the airport.

After less than an hour of negotiations with officials from Russia8217;s Federal Security Service, the main successor to the KGB, authorities captured the man, said a duty officer for the airport police.

In addition to ten million dollars, officials said the hijacker was demanding safe passage to Switzerland. The IL-62 passenger plane landed at Sheremetyevo-1 on the capital8217;s northwestern outskirts as scheduled and was met by a huge contingent of anti-terrorist police and security officers.Dozens of heavily armed police and interior ministry commandos wearing camouflage outfits and black wool hats stood near the runway receiving a briefing by a senior commander. Top police and government officials also stood by, as did a fleet of ambulances.

The forces were armed with sniper rifles, kalashnikovs and submachine guns. President Boris Yeltsin was talking with security officials about what measures should be taken, his spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembsky said.

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There were conflicting reports on the number on board, ranging from 146 to 155.

The plane hijacking was the first in Russia in more than two years, although it came just four days after another air disaster 8212; a cargo plane crash that killed at least 67 people in Irkutsk, Siberia, with 17 still missing.In June 1995, three men seized a helicopter at the airport in the Siberian city of Ulan Ude but surrendered without getting off the ground. The following month, two young men hijacked a plane bound from Yakutsk in Siberia to moscow with 174 people aboard but were seized after they were paid ransom by police during a refueling stop.

In November 1994, a man seized a Tupolev-134 after it left the northern Russian region of Komi for St. Petersburg. He released all 69 hostages before surrendering peacefully during a refueling stop in Tallinn, Estonia.There also have been numerous bus hijackings, mostly in the restive Caucasus mountains region of southern Russia.