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Turkish hijackers surrender
03/10/2006 22:13 - (SA)
Rome - Two Turks surrendered to Italian police on Tuesday after hijacking a Turkish Airlines plane amid conflicting reports over their motives, a civil aviation official said.
"The two men have surrendered to police," the official told AFP.
The plane with 113 passengers and crew on board was hijacked during a flight from Albania to Istanbul.
Italian civil aviation authorities told the ANSA news agency that the two apparently unarmed hijackers had a message for Pope Benedict XVI, who is due to visit mainly Muslim Turkey in late November.
Istanbul vice-governor Vedat Muftuoglu said the hijackers took control of the plane 15 to 20 minutes after it took off from the Albanian capital Tirana.
"They said their action was to protest the pope's visit and that they wanted to go to Rome," Muftuoglu told CNN-Turk television, adding that the pilot said he did not have enough fuel to reach Rome and would have to land in the southeastern city of Brindisi.
However, Turkish transport minister Binali Yildirim told NTV television that the hijackers were seeking political asylum and there were no indications that they were protesting against the pope's planned visit to Turkey. 'No threat'
"The information concerning the pope was not confirmed.... According to the information we just received these persons are seeking political asylum and have said so to the (Italian) police," Yildirim said.
Turkish Airline's chief executive Candan Karlitekin earlier told Turkey's NTV television: "There is no threat at the moment to the passengers nor the crew. "We believe the hijackers will surrender."
He said there were 107 passengers and six crew on board the Boeing 737-400 - which was intercepted by two Italian military F-16s and forced to land in Brindisi.
Benedict XVI, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, is scheduled to visit Turkey in November despite a furore over the pope's recent remarks on Islam.
Negotiations with the hijackers were being conducted from the Brindisi control tower, authorities said, adding that the administrator of the Brindisi region and a judge were taking part.
- AFP
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