Hijacked plane with 112 on board lands in
Baghdad
October 14, 2000
Web posted at: 2:49 PM EDT (1849 GMT)
CAIRO, Egypt -- A London-bound Saudi
airliner has been hijacked by at least one
man believed to be armed with
explosives.
The Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing
777-200 was taken over as it flew over
Egypt bound for Heathrow Airport
where it had been expected to land at
5.40 p.m. local time (1640 GMT).
"A Saudi flight 115 from Jeddah to London told the control tower just after
leaving Egyptian airspace at 2.55 p.m. (1255 GMT) local time that he was
hijacked and that the hijackers demanded that they go to Damascus," an Egyptian
aviation official said.
The aircraft, which has 112 people on board and was flying from Jeddah, Saudi
Arabia, bypassed Syria and has now landed in Baghdad, Iraq.
Airline officials say among the passengers are 40 people from Britain, 15 from
Saudi Arabia, 15 from Pakistan, a Palestinian, and one each from Spain, Oman,
the United States, Sweden, France, Lebanon, India, Nigeria, Kenya, Yemen, and
four South Africans.
They would not divulge the nationalities of the remaining passengers.
At Heathrow Airport, in west London, many worried friends and relatives were
anviously waiting for news of their loved ones.
Cypriot air traffic controllers said the plane, which has a crew complement of
17, had asked to cross Syria to fly to Baghdad after being refused permission to
land in Damascus.
A message from the captain of the Saudi Air flight to the control tower at
Larnaca, Cyprus, said: "The hijacker is saying that he has TNT (explosives) on
board and he might blow the aircraft, and we have passengers from all kinds of
nationalities."
"Do you read? Call the Damascus FIA (Flight Information Area) for authority to
overfly," he said.
CNN's Jane Arraf, in Baghdad, said: "Saddam Hussein (the Iraqi president) has
guranteed the safety of the passengers aboard and will treat them as if they were
Iraqi citizens."
She said that emergency services and armed troops are at the airport.
Nothing is known about the motives or identity of the hijacker, or whether he is
acting alone.
cnn.com |
