Police and ambulances met the flight in Prague.
Photo: AP
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Drunken Hijacker Will Wake Up with Big Headache
An Aeroflot flight to Geneva made an emergency landing yesterday on Prague with 168 people abroad after a passenger threatened to blow up the plane unless it flew to Cairo. The 32-year-old would-be hijacker, Vladimir Dagaev, was in an advanced state of alcohol intoxication.
The regularly scheduled flight left Sheremetyevo-2 Airport yesterday at 10:00 a.m. Everything went normally until a dispute broke out between a passenger and a stewardess about two and a half hours into the flight. When senior attendant Alexey Kryakhtunov tried to intervene in the dispute, the aggressive passenger announced that the plane may “not land any more” and that it had to change course for Cairo to avoid that fate. A passenger stated that he threatened to blow the plane up.
The passenger bounded through the plane, striking another attendant and shoving a woman with a child before being subdued and tied up. The pilot requested permission to land at Prague's Ruzyne Airport and the plane was surrounded by police and fire equipment on landing. Dogs searched the plane and its baggage after the evacuation of the passengers, but did not uncover any explosives. None of the passengers required medical attention.
Police say that Dagaev was on his way to a Swiss ski resort with none friends and relatives. They were all taken in for questioning in Prague. At the Russian Embassy in Prague, they speculated that Dagaev would be extradited to Russia for prosecution. If so, he faces charges under article 211 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Seizure of an aircraft”) punishable by up to eight years imprison and under article 207 (“Intentional false report of a terrorist act) punishable by up to three years in prison. He is also open to suit by Aeroflot and the other passengers.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Dec. 29, 2006
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