Plane Hijack Linked to Pope Appeal

A Turkish man seeking political asylum hijacked an airliner with more than 100 passengers yesterday, apparently in an attempt to enrol the help of the Pope.

He took control of the Turkish Airlines Boeing 737-400, which was flying from Albania to Istanbul, and forced it to land in Italy. After some two hours of negotiations, the hijacker, who turned out not to be armed, gave himself up to police at Brindisi airport and asked for asylum.

The governor of Istanbul, Muammer Guler, identified the man as Hakan Ekinci, 28, an army deserter who he said had fled to Albania. Mr Guler told Turkish CNN: "We have been told he was not assured of refugee status and was returning to Turkey." The Italian news agency, Ansa, reported finding on a website a copy of a letter Mr Ekinci had sent to the Pope on August 30. It quoted him as saying: "I am a Christian and I don't want to serve in a Muslim army."

Early reports indicated there were two hijackers and that they had seized the plane in protest at the pontiff's visit to Turkey next month.

Pope Benedict caused a wave of protest in the Muslim world last month by quoting a 14th century Byzantine emperor who said: "Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."

He has expressed regret for offending Muslims by his remarks and said they did not reflect his personal views, but he has not offered a complete apology as some had sought. The Vatican said yesterday that it was going ahead with the trip and a Vatican official, asked about the hijacking, said he expected no changes in the Pope's plans for the visit.

The plane was flying from Tirana, Albania's capital, to Istanbul when the pilot signalled to Greek air traffic controllers that he was being hijacked.

The Associated Press quoted an Italian security official as saying: "The man burst into the cockpit and said, 'There's two of us.'"

Officials in Athens said four Greek fighter planes were scrambled to shadow the airliner until it crossed into Italian airspace. In the meantime, the Italian authorities ordered two F-16 fighters into the air from a base on Sicily.

An Albanian MP said that after the plane landed at Brindisi, he had spoken by phone to a parliamentarian who was on board. He quoted Sadri Abazi of the Socialist party as saying: "The passengers didn't realise what was happening."