Turkish airplane hijacked

ISTANBUL, Turkey – Self-proclaimed al-Qaida members hijacked a Turkish airliner on its way from Northern Cyprus to Istanbul today, the private television station NTV reported.

The hijackers demanded that the airplane be flown to Tehran, Iran, said Tuncay Doganer, CEO of the private Atlasjet airline company.

But the plane landed at an airport in Antalya, a Turkish province on the Mediterranean coast, after pilots said there was not enough fuel to fly to Iran, Doganer said.

There were 136 passengers and six crew on board the plane, Doganer said. He said some of the passengers had been released.

However, a relative of one of the passengers on board the plane told NTV that passengers broke down the rear exit of the plane and escaped and that only the airliner’s crew remained on board.

The hijackers appeared to be Turkish, the man said, as he spoke to his nephew by telephone.