Athens News Agency: News in English, 03-03-29

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] Hijacker of Turkish plane arrested at Athens airport, all passengers

[01] Hijacker of Turkish plane arrested at Athens airport, all passengers safe

A Turkish hijacker of a Turkish Airlines plane on a domestic flight from Istanbul to Ankara who forced the Airbus 310 to land at Athens' international airport just after midnight on Friday was arrested and all the pasengers and crew on board were freed following the intervention of the Greek police.

The negotiations took place between the Turkish pilot and Greek police at the control tower. After the hijacker, who spoke only Turkish, allowed all the passengers and crew to disembark shortly after 3 a.m., a Turkish translator entered the cockpit following which Greek police immediately stormed the plane and managed to handcuff the hijacker who is said to be mentally disturbed.

The hijacker, identified as Ozgur Yencaslan, 20, will be brought before the public prosecutor.

Flight TK 160 which took off from Istanbul airport at 10 p.m was carrying 194 passengers and a nine-member crew.

Foreign Minister George Papandreou who arrived at Athens' ''Eleftherios Venizelos'' international airport thanked the Greek authorities, police, public order ministry, transport ministry and the authorities at the airport for their contribution in the safe release of the passengers, stressing that with the coordination of the Greek prime minister the release of the passengers had a happy end.

Public Order Minister Mihalis Chrysohoidis told reporters at the airport that all the passengers and crew were well in health and that following talks he had with the Turkish ambassador to Athens, all the passengers would shortly return to Turkey on another flight. The minister clarified that the Greek police would give an announcement in the morning giving details on the hijacking incident.

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