Policeman Knocks Hijacker Onto Tarmac

A Bosnian hijacker pulled a knife Tuesday on an Austrian Airlines pilot and forced him to land in Berlin. But the ordeal ended after a policeman slipped inside the plane and knocked the hijacker out an open door onto the runway.

None of the 28 passengers or five crew members was injured.

Flight OS104 was en route from Berlin to Vienna when the 39-year-old man put a knife to the throat of pilot Gerhard Pfeifhofer and demanded the flight turn back.

The MD-87 landed at 12:47 p.m. at Berlin’s Tegel airport.

The plane was taxied into a hangar, where authorities prepared to negotiate with the hijacker.

While the hijacker was waiting at an open front door for negotiators to arrive, flight attendants let two policemen slip in the back door.

As the pilot shouted “Storm now! Storm now!” the policemen rushed inside and one officer, Klaus-Dieter Mueller, 52, pushed the hijacker out the open door onto the runway.