TURKEY: Airplane hijacker surrenders after forcing local flight to ground in Turkish capital

A Turkish man hijacked a commercial passenger plane on Tuesday flying from the mainly Kurdish southeastern city of Diyarbakir but then later gave himself up to the authorities. A Turkish man hijacked a commercial passenger plane on Tuesday (April 10) flying from the mainly Kurdish southeastern city of Diyarbakir but then gave himself up to the authorities, an Ankara airport official said. Police believe the hijacker acted from personal, not political motives, and may be mentally ill, the official added. The state-run Anatolian news agency identified him as Mehmet Goksin Gol, an unemployed man from Diyarbakir with a drug-related criminal record. CNN Turk television said he was believed to have taken drugs before boarding the flight. A passenger, Firat Keles, told CNN Turk that the hijacker, who was aged about 40, had said he had a bomb and he wanted to go to Iran. The Pegasus Airlines plane had been carrying 178 passengers from the southeast city of Diyarbakir to Istanbul. Special forces boarded the plane at Ankara airport to check whether the man had any accomplices before allowing passengers to disembark, the airport official said. Officials denied an earlier media report that a woman had also been arrested in connection with the incident. The hijacking comes six months after a Turkish man hijacked a Turkish Airlines flight on its way from Tirana, Albania, to Istanbul. It was diverted to Italy. Turkish security forces have been battling Kurdish separatist rebels in the southeast region for decades in a conflict that has claimed more than 30,000 lives. Clashes have increased in recent days.

ITN Source | April 11, 2007

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