Hijacking ends safely

last updated 8 January 2015

Athens

A Turkish man brandishing candlesticks that he claimed were explosives hijacked a plane from Istanbul this week, demanding to fly to Germany to see relatives. The Turkish Airlines flight, originally heading for the capital, Ankara, changed course several times before landing in Athens to refuel. As Greek anti-terrorist police surrounded the plane, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan spoke with the hijacker, Ozgur Gencarslan, by telephone and persuaded him to relinquish the plane. None of the more than 200 passengers, among them several high-level Turkish officials, were injured. Gencarslan, 20, is undergoing psychiatric evaluation in Greece. “He has some family problems,” Turkish Transportation Minister Binali Yildirim said. “We used a fatherly and understanding approach to convince him” to surrender.