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| World Home » Terrorism » | Fri. May 16, 2008 |
| Terrorism |
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Passengers tell of coming close to death MIL/Agencies, Aug 19, 2007. Istanbul, August 19, 2007 - The passengers of a Turkish plane hijacked on Saturday said they felt they came close to death after two men claiming to be members of Al Qaeda commandeered their aircraft with threats of a bomb. "We went though very difficult moments. We almost tasted death. I pray to Allah that no one lives through what we did,” a male passenger who identified himself only by his first name Abdullah told the CNN-Turk news channel. He was among the 121 of the plane’s passengers who flew to Istanbul from the Turkish Mediterranean resort of Antalya where the hijackers forced the plane to land before turning themselves in. Atlas Jet, the private Turkish company operating the aircraft, initially said there were 136 passengers and six crew on plane, but Turkish officials later said there were 140 persons on board, including eight children, and five crew. Turkish officials identified one of the hijackers as Turkish national Mehmet Resat Ozlu, and the other as Mommen Abdul Aziz Talikh, who has a Syrian passport but was believed to be of Palestinian origin. The two men commandeered the plane, an MD-83, shortly after it took off from an airport the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) at 7:15 am (0415 GMT) for Istanbul. “One of the hijackers was sitting right behind me. I actually thought he looked quite handsome when he came on to the plane: tall and slim with black hair,” an elderly woman passenger, who did not give her name, said. “About 15-20 minutes after take-off, he suddenly jumped up from his seat, ran towards the cockpit, and landed karate kicks on the door. His friend immediately rushed to help him,” she said. Turkish officials said the hijackers failed to break down the locked cockpit door and took female steward hostage, threatening to hurt her if the pilots did not abide by their demands.
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