Man Trying to Hijack Plane to Olympics Detained in Turkey
Published
on Fri, Feb 7, 2014 By: Susan
Fraser
Last Friday, a
Ukrainian man tried to hijack a plane headed to Sochi for the Olympics. The man
believed that the plane ended up landing in Sochi, but the pilot tricked the
supposed hijacker, and landed in Istanbul. As soon as the pilot signalled that
there was an attempt to hijack the plane, a Turkish fighter jet was sent out to
safely and securely escort the plane to its destination. Afterwards, the
hijacker was arrested during a confrontation in which a negotiator was able to
convince the man to let the passengers off of the plane. The man’s motive
wasn’t evident, but according to Huseyin Avni Mutlu, the Governor of Istanbul,
the hijacker wanted to deliver a “message concerning the sporting activities in
Sochi”. According to Habib Soluk, the Turkish Transport Ministry undersecretary,
the hijacker stood up from his seat, yelled that there was a bomb on the plane,
and tried to go into the cockpit, which was luckily locked. The plane landed
about when the opening ceremony began, and despite the threat of the hijacking,
the executive creative director of the Olympics opening ceremony didn’t change
anything.
In the
article, it talks a little about the events on the plane. Personally, I would
prefer for it to have given a little more detail about the happenings. For
example, they could have included an interview with one of the passengers
concerning what was going through their mind at the time, while the hijacker
was yelling about the bomb. With the information already given, I would be
really scared if I happened to be on that plane. Also, at the end of the
article, it mentions that even though the director of the opening ceremony knew
about the attempted hijacking, he didn’t do anything. That makes me question
the security during an event such as the opening ceremony. Naturally, they
wouldn’t have absolutely no security, but it surprised me that he didn’t change
anything about the opening. He at least could have increased the security
measures in order to enter the area. I also would have liked a little more
information about what happened to both the man and the passengers when they
found out they weren’t in Sochi. For example, they could have included if the
passengers got to the Olympics yet, or if they’re still at Istanbul. Despite
these things, I liked the article. It explained the happening of somebody
trying to partially sabotage a major worldwide event. That was actually the
reason I chose this article. I see no reason for anybody to do something like
that, so by reading the article, I might find out the motive behind it.
