Man in wheelchair hijacks plane
2005-09-13 09:47
Bogota - An armed man in a wheelchair and his son hijacked an airliner with 25 people aboard in Colombia, forcing the plane to land in Bogota before surrendering to authorities, officials and passengers said.
The two men were seen on television getting off the plane and entering a firefighters' vehicle, four hours after the plane landed at Bogota's El Dorado airport.
The pair had released all passengers earlier but remained on board with two pilots and three negotiators. Passengers said the men claimed to be armed with grenades.
The Aires airline plane, a Canadian-made Bombardier Dash 300 turboprop, was flying between two southern towns when it was commandeered. Authorities cancelled domestic and international flights at the Bogota hub and airports across the Andean nation were put on high alert.
No regrets
Local radio said the hijackers demanded compensation for a police search of their home 14 years ago, in which the father was wounded and crippled.
They surrendered after reaching a deal with negotiators, the father, Porfirio Ramirez told reporters upon arriving at a Bogota police station where he and his son were incarcerated.
"They told me they are going to help me out and pay me," he said. "I don't regret what I've done."
A statement from the office of President Alvaro Uribe said Ramirez's claim would be investigated. "The government made no concession, nor did it pay any ransom," the statement said.
The government will also investigate how the men managed to take two grenades through security controls at Florencia airport, where the flight originated.
One passenger told radio Caracol the man in a wheelchair had not been searched before boarding the plane.
The negotiators who talked with the hijackers included a Roman Catholic priest, a government attorney and a human rights monitor. Police and military forces were deployed around the airport.
Uribe, who was in Cali in the southwest, was kept informed about the hijacking and returned to Bogota.
The turboprop had been flying between Florencia and Neiva, civil aviation authority spokesperson Martin Gonzalez told AFP.
It was the fifth airplane hijacking in Colombia since 1999.
The Colombian government has fought left-wing guerrillas in a 41-year-old conflict that has left 200 000 people dead. About 3 000 kidnappings are carried out every year by various left- and right-wing groups.
In 2002, the government accused the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC, of hijacking an airplane and kidnapping a senator who was aboard.