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El Al Guards Foil Hijack Attempt
Nov 17, 9:01 PM (ET)
By ESRA AYGIN
ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) - Security guards on Israel's national airline El Al overpowered a suspected hijacker who tried to storm the cockpit of a Tel Aviv to Istanbul flight on Sunday, apparently armed with a pen knife, officials said.
None of the 170 passengers on board the Boeing 757 were harmed and the plane landed safely, said Oktay Cakirlar, an official at Istanbul's Ataturk International Airport.
The semi-official Anatolia news agency identified the hijacker as Tawfiq ***ra, a 23-year-old Arab with an Israeli passport.
Cakirlar said El Al Flight 581 sent out a hijacking signal as it approached Istanbul but the suspect was overcome.
"No one was injured," Cakirlar told The Associated Press by telephone. "The terrorist is in custody at the police station at the airport."
The suspect, a tall, thin man with dark features, was later seen being taken out of the airport in handcuffs by undercover police.
Passengers said the man threatened a flight attendant then tried to kick in the door to the cockpit. But he was unable to break in as the door was locked, they said.
The general manager of El Al, Amos Shapira, confirmed the suspect was an Israeli Arab but refused to identify him.
"What we know is that just some minutes before landing, one of the passengers tried to reach the cockpit with what we assume now is a small pocket knife," Shapira told The Associated Press. "Then within some seconds he was taken under control of our security guards and the event was terminated."
Istanbul police chief Hasan Ozdemir said the suspect was being interrogated.
Israeli passenger Menahem Binet told Israel army radio he "heard people saying there was fighting and half a minute later it became clear that from row five or six a man ran amok toward the pilot's cabin, attacked a stewardess and tried to enter the cockpit."
"We saw a stewardess running like crazy from the front of the place to the business section...She was terrified," Binet said.
The man was quickly overpowered by two security guards, one posing as a passenger, Turkey's private CNN-Turk television said. Passengers said they saw no weapons on the guards.
Binet said the guards made the suspect lie down "with his legs spread and his face on the floor. The passengers were hysterical, they (cabin staff) calmed us down, the captain calmed us down and, thank God, it all ended well."
At the airport, passengers could be seen going through security checks, where they were frisked, and passport control.
Relatives of passengers huddled at the airport.
"My mother called me and she said 'we landed' but she did not mention the incident at all," said Sela Anah as she waited for her mother, Suzan Natan. "My mom sounded fine."
El Al is widely regarded as world's most protected airline, but also one of the most threatened. From the late 1960s into the 1980s, El Al planes and passengers were subjected to shooting attacks, hijacking and bombing attempts.
El Al's formidable security includes armed guards at check-in, on-board marshals and extensive searches of luggage. Passengers are told to arrive three hours ahead of flights to allow enough time for the security checks.
On the Fourth of July, an Egyptian immigrant, Hesham Mohamed Hadayet, opened fire at the El Al ticket counter at Los Angeles Airport, killing two people before he was shot dead by an airline security guard. Nothing was found to link the incident to terrorist groups and the motive remained unknown.
Hadayet, however, had previously told U.S. authorities that he was falsely accused of being in a militant Egyptian group that the United States now lists as a terror group.
The first and last successful hijacking of an El Al plane was in July 1968, when a flight from Rome was seized by members of the extremist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and forced to land in Algiers. Passengers and crew were held hostage there, with the last of them not released until five months later.
A September 1970 hijacking attempt failed when sky marshals shot and killed one hijacker and captured his accomplice. After that, Palestinian groups hijacked other airliners flying to and from Israel, including an Air France plane that was forced to land at Entebbe, Uganda, in June 1976. The hijacking ended in a rescue operation carried out by Israeli commandos.
Tight security has also thwarted attempts to put bombs aboard El Al planes.
In April 1986, a Jordanian, Nezar Hindawi, planted a bomb in the hand luggage of his pregnant Irish fiancee as she was about to board an El Al plane at London's Heathrow airport. The bomb was detected by El Al security. Hindawi was sentenced to 45 years in prison.
Since then it has become common practice for security guards to ask extremely personal questions, especially to women traveling alone - if they have a Palestinian boyfriend or any contact with Palestinians.
Copyright 2002 Associated Press. All right reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Nov 17, 9:01 PM (ET)
By ESRA AYGIN
ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) - Security guards on Israel's national airline El Al overpowered a suspected hijacker who tried to storm the cockpit of a Tel Aviv to Istanbul flight on Sunday, apparently armed with a pen knife, officials said.
None of the 170 passengers on board the Boeing 757 were harmed and the plane landed safely, said Oktay Cakirlar, an official at Istanbul's Ataturk International Airport.
The semi-official Anatolia news agency identified the hijacker as Tawfiq ***ra, a 23-year-old Arab with an Israeli passport.
Cakirlar said El Al Flight 581 sent out a hijacking signal as it approached Istanbul but the suspect was overcome.
"No one was injured," Cakirlar told The Associated Press by telephone. "The terrorist is in custody at the police station at the airport."
The suspect, a tall, thin man with dark features, was later seen being taken out of the airport in handcuffs by undercover police.
Passengers said the man threatened a flight attendant then tried to kick in the door to the cockpit. But he was unable to break in as the door was locked, they said.
The general manager of El Al, Amos Shapira, confirmed the suspect was an Israeli Arab but refused to identify him.
"What we know is that just some minutes before landing, one of the passengers tried to reach the cockpit with what we assume now is a small pocket knife," Shapira told The Associated Press. "Then within some seconds he was taken under control of our security guards and the event was terminated."
Istanbul police chief Hasan Ozdemir said the suspect was being interrogated.
Israeli passenger Menahem Binet told Israel army radio he "heard people saying there was fighting and half a minute later it became clear that from row five or six a man ran amok toward the pilot's cabin, attacked a stewardess and tried to enter the cockpit."
"We saw a stewardess running like crazy from the front of the place to the business section...She was terrified," Binet said.
The man was quickly overpowered by two security guards, one posing as a passenger, Turkey's private CNN-Turk television said. Passengers said they saw no weapons on the guards.
Binet said the guards made the suspect lie down "with his legs spread and his face on the floor. The passengers were hysterical, they (cabin staff) calmed us down, the captain calmed us down and, thank God, it all ended well."
At the airport, passengers could be seen going through security checks, where they were frisked, and passport control.
Relatives of passengers huddled at the airport.
"My mother called me and she said 'we landed' but she did not mention the incident at all," said Sela Anah as she waited for her mother, Suzan Natan. "My mom sounded fine."
El Al is widely regarded as world's most protected airline, but also one of the most threatened. From the late 1960s into the 1980s, El Al planes and passengers were subjected to shooting attacks, hijacking and bombing attempts.
El Al's formidable security includes armed guards at check-in, on-board marshals and extensive searches of luggage. Passengers are told to arrive three hours ahead of flights to allow enough time for the security checks.
On the Fourth of July, an Egyptian immigrant, Hesham Mohamed Hadayet, opened fire at the El Al ticket counter at Los Angeles Airport, killing two people before he was shot dead by an airline security guard. Nothing was found to link the incident to terrorist groups and the motive remained unknown.
Hadayet, however, had previously told U.S. authorities that he was falsely accused of being in a militant Egyptian group that the United States now lists as a terror group.
The first and last successful hijacking of an El Al plane was in July 1968, when a flight from Rome was seized by members of the extremist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and forced to land in Algiers. Passengers and crew were held hostage there, with the last of them not released until five months later.
A September 1970 hijacking attempt failed when sky marshals shot and killed one hijacker and captured his accomplice. After that, Palestinian groups hijacked other airliners flying to and from Israel, including an Air France plane that was forced to land at Entebbe, Uganda, in June 1976. The hijacking ended in a rescue operation carried out by Israeli commandos.
Tight security has also thwarted attempts to put bombs aboard El Al planes.
In April 1986, a Jordanian, Nezar Hindawi, planted a bomb in the hand luggage of his pregnant Irish fiancee as she was about to board an El Al plane at London's Heathrow airport. The bomb was detected by El Al security. Hindawi was sentenced to 45 years in prison.
Since then it has become common practice for security guards to ask extremely personal questions, especially to women traveling alone - if they have a Palestinian boyfriend or any contact with Palestinians.
Copyright 2002 Associated Press. All right reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
