Series of EmergencyNet News "Real-Time" Reports Concerning the Hijacking of A Russian Vnukovo Airlines Tupolev 154 From Istanbul, Turkey: 15-17 Mar 2001

From: ERRI SPECIAL REPORT-ERRI Risk Assessment Services-Saturday, March 17, 2001-09:00CST

SAUDI ARABIA:

Post-Mortem Examination Of Hijack Ending

In a dramatic end to a two-day hostage crisis, a hijacker, a flight attendant and a Turkish passenger were killed on Friday when Saudi special forces personnel carried out an assault on a Russian plane commandeered by armed Chechens to the holy Muslim city of Medina. Saudi state-run television showed about a dozen members of the assault team, armed with handguns, climb up ladders and breaking through the cockpit window and doors.

At least two hijackers were shown pinned face down on the tarmac under the boots of security force members in bullet- proof vests. A high-ranking Saudi official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: "One of the hijackers killed the air stewardess when the special forces raided the plane. The special forces retaliated and killed the hijacker." The Russian foreign ministry told Interfax that the flight attendant was killed by the hijackers who slit her throat with a knife.

A Turkish witness said that the Turkish victim who was killed was shot to death by Saudi security forces when they stormed the plane. The man "was shot dead when he stood up just at the time when the Saudi troops opened fire." He said he also witnessed the Chechen hijackers slit the throat of the second victim, a flight attendant, with a knife and that one of the hijackers was killed in the shootout with the Saudi forces.

The Kremlin named the flight attendant as 28-year-old Yulia Fomina, from Moscow. In Ankara, officials said the dead passenger was Turkish construction worker Gursel Kambal, age 27. A Saudi spokesman said that another woman and a passenger were wounded. However, Kremlin officials said five others were wounded, four Turks and a Russian.

The Saudi spokesman said that the assault came following "an agreement between Saudi and Russian authorities after negotiations with the hijackers reached an impasse. The hijackers threatened to

blow up the plane." Despite reports in Moscow of a shootout, a Saudi official said the three Chechens were armed only with a knife, a pick and what appeared to be a bomb.

A Saudi Interior Ministry statement said: "The goal of the storming operation was to save the lives of the passengers and the crew with the least number of casualties possible, and it concluded in record time after the hijackers threatened to blow up the plane."

Interior Minister Prince Nayef said: "Saudi special forces stormed the plane and rescued the passengers and crew without the participation of any outside party." A Russian offer to send a Spetsnaz special forces counterterrorism unit to rescue the hostages was reportedly turned down.

The order for the assault came shortly after the Saudi authorities pretended to refuel the vessel for a long flight in response to demands from the hijackers. The hijackers had demanded that the plane be given enough fuel for a flight of up to 3,000 miles. They apparently wanted to fly to the Afghan city of Kandahar.

Saudi and Russian officials said the hijackers had freed over-night or allowed to escape about 50 hostages out of the 162 passengers and 12 crew aboard the flight from Istanbul to Moscow.

Saudi Colonel Ali al-Rikhaili, the rescue squad leader, said: "We were ordered to storm the plane after the pilot screamed for help when the hijackers started to stab some passengers. We wanted to rescue as many as possible. We shot dead one hijacker after we saw him stabbing to death a stewardess. Some passengers suffered from stab wounds." He added that the rescue operation lasted three minutes.

A top Russian security official who headed a special hijack crisis unit said that negotiations with Saudi authorities were under way for the hostage-takers to be sent to Moscow to stand trial.

Breakaway Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov's spokesman repeated denials that pro-independence rebels were involved in the hijacking. Former Chechen minister for state security Aslanbek Arsayev, who fought the Russians in the first 1994-96 Chechen war and was wounded, was one of the three hijackers. The other two were his brother Supian Arsayev and Supian's son.

During the hijack, the plane plunged 1,300 feet as a fight broke out at the door of the cockpit involving the hijackers. The aircraft was eventually stabilized, but one man, a steward, was seriously injured in the struggle.

It was being reported on Saturday that Russian authorities warned their Turkish counterparts ten days ago that two of the men who hijacked the airliner at Istanbul airport posed a security risk. According to the Interfax news agency, an anonymous source at the center of the hostage drama said that Moscow handed Ankara a list of people it considered a security risk, which included two of the hijackers. The official also said that Chechen rebel leader Khattab was behind the attack.

The following is an Associated Press (AP) list of previous major airline hijackings in the past 25 years that have ended with security forces storming the planes:

-- JAPAN: On 21 June 1995, a member of the outlawed Aum sect hijacks a Japanese Boeing 747 with 365 passengers on board at the airport in northern Hakodate, demanding the release of the sect's jailed leader, Shoko Asahara. Security forces storm the plane 16 hours later, arresting the hijacker and releasing all the passengers safely.

-- FRANCE: On 24-26 December 1994, four Algerian Islamic extremists seize an Air France Airbus A-300 with 239 people on board at the airport in Algiers. The gunmen kill three passengers. On 26 December, the plane leaves for Marseille, southern France, where a GIGN (Groupe d'Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale - National Gendarmerie Intervention Group) unit launches a night-time assault, freeing the passengers and killing the four hijackers.

-- MALTA: On 23 November 1985, three hijackers seize an EgyptAir Boeing 737 flying to Cairo with 97 people on board, and take the plane to Malta. Two passengers are killed and thrown out of the plane before Egyptian commandos storm the jet after 22 hours of talks. The hijackers respond by throwing hand grenades and 61 people are killed during the operation, including two hijackers. A group calling itself the Egyptian Revolution claims responsibility for the hijacking. The surviving hijacker was a Lebanese man of Palestinian origin.

-- CYPRUS: On 19 February 1978, two Palestinians, who had taken hostage about 50 participants in a conference in Nicosia, are given use of a plane at Larnaca airport in Cyprus. They hold 11 passengers and four crew members on board the Cyprus Airways DC-8. Egyptian troops storm the plane, without the approval of the Cypriot authorities. Cypriot security forces respond, and 15 Egyptian soldiers are killed and 15 wounded in the confusion. The hostages are freed and the two hijackers arrested.

-- SOMALIA: On 13 October 1977, four Palestinians hijack a Boeing 737 of the German airline Lufthansa on a flight from Majorca to Frankfurt with 87 people on board. The hijackers -- along with members of the Red Army Faction in what was then West Germany holding a leading German businessman -- demand the release of 11 jailed German militants. The plane lands in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, where members of the Grenshutzgruppe 9 (GSG-9) storm the jet and free the hostages. Three hijackers are killed. The fourth, a woman, is wounded.

-- UGANDA: On 27 June 1976, an Air France Airbus enroute from Tel Aviv to Paris with 258 people on board is seized by pro-Palestinian hijackers after it stops in Athens. The hijackers take the plane to Entebbe airport in Uganda. They free 147 hostages and hold the others in the airport terminal building. On 3 July, Israeli troops land in Entebbe and launch an assault. Three hostages, all seven hijackers and about 20 Ugandan soldiers are killed a 90-minute battle.

ERRI SPECIAL REPORT

Friday, March 16, 2001 -  06:45CST

SAUDI ARABIA

THREE KILLED AS RUSSIAN PLANE HIJACKING ENDS

Three people were killed, several others were injured and three Chechen suspects were reportedly in custody after Saudi security forces stormed a hijacked Russian plane on Friday. The assault on the plane freed more than 100 hostages and ending a crisis that began when armed men commandeered the plane after takeoff from Istanbul on Thursday.

According to a report from the AFP news service, two of the hijackers shown on television are Supian Arsayev, brother of a former Chechen minister, Aslanbek Arsayev, and Supian's son.

The Russian Kremlin said that those killed were one Turkish passenger, one hijacker "apparently the younger one" and one stewardess. Saudi paramedics said the woman was stabbed to death while the two men were shot.

The rescue operation by Saudi forces took only minutes, after an hours-long standoff between Saudi authorities and the hijackers, who reportedly numbered between two and four. The storming of the plane was reportedly approved by Russian authorities.

The hijacking began when Chechen men armed with knives and claiming to have a bomb hijacked the plane carrying 174 people after it left Turkey on Thursday, bound for Moscow. They forced it to land in the Saudi holy city of Medina. Saudi Special Forces reportedly stormed the plane after the pilots escaped the aircraft. The pilots are said to had locked themselves in the cockpit. Up to 112 people were still aboard the plane at the time Saudi forces moved in. Earlier, as many as 46 people had been freed or escaped.

Minutes before the raid, more than 30 members of the Saudi army's special forces unit in full battle gear, armed with semi-automatic rifles and wearing helmets and bulletproof vests, were loaded into an army bus. About six ambulances and fire engines surrounded the plane, which was parked in an isolated area on the tarmac while Medina airport remained open to commercial flights.

The decision for the take down came after the hijackers failed to establish further contact with the Saudis. Besides the three people killed, four to five people may had been injured. A surgeon who boarded the plane after the rescue operation said seven people were injured, and most of them were being treated for minor cuts and bruises. A Saudi security man who said he had taken part in the attack said none of the Saudi troops had been hurt.

Aftayeva Fariza, a representative of the breakaway Chechen Republic in Amman, Jordan, said the reason for the hijacking was not terrorism or money, but to attract world attention to the situation in Chechnya.

It wasn't clear what the hijackers' demands were. Saudi officials said they had earlier asked to fly to Afghanistan. It took negotiators three hours to find a Chechen-Arabic translator, which delayed the start of negotiations. A Russian Embassy official told Russia's NTV television that the hijackers' demands were unclear. An official at Medina airport, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the hijackers had earlier asked authorities to refuel the plane and prepare it for a long flight but later changed their minds. He did not say where the hijackers planned to go.

Chechen rebels have conducted several hijackings over the last decade. Top officials in Chechnya say they did not order the operation. This incident is not be the first time that the rebels' fight for independence has spilled over the breakaway republic's borders. Chechen separatists have carried out frequent hijackings, kidnappings and raids since 1990, when the Soviet Union was showing signs of crumbling. Observers say hijackings are a relatively frequent occurrence in the Caucasus region and Russia. Most end when the Russian security services seize the hijackers.

*****

INSTANT 05:00CST - 16 Mar 2001

Assault On Hostage Plane Undertaken By Saudi Special Forces

Medina, Saudi Arabia (EmergencyNet News) -- Reports are coming in to EmergencyNet News that suggest that an assault has been undertaken by Saudi special forces to retake a hijacked Russian airliner. Few officially verified details are currently available, but unconfirmed reports say that the hostages have been freed and three hijackers are now in custody. 

It is thought that several people were injured in the assault, but official confirmation concerning injures or deaths has not been received. Conflicting reports concerning casualties are presently being received.  EmergencyNet News is monitoring events in Medina closely and will provide additional details as they become available...

*****

0001CST - 16 Mar 2001

Forty-Five Hostages Released/Escaped; Strained Negotiations Continue on Tarmac in Medina

Medina, Saudi Arabia (EmergencyNet News) -- Negotiations reportedly still continue at this hour, as a Vnukovo Airlines Tupolev 154 that was hijacked on Thursday outside of Istanbul;, Turkey is now surrounded by Saudi military and police units. According to airport authorities, a total of forty-five (45) passengers have either be released by the hijackers or may have escaped from the rear of the ill-fated plane.

The hijackers, believed to be "Chechens," are reportedly armed with knives and claim to have a bomb. Although details still remain unclear, it is believed that they have said that they want to fly to Afghanistan, have demanded money, and want an end to the Russian military campaign in Chechnya.

According to the Associated Press, a Saudi team of negotiators was having great difficulty communicating with the hijackers, who spoke neither English or Arabic, until a someone who spoke Chechen was located to translate for the Saudi hostage negotiators. Those talks are said to be continuing at the time of this report.

Officially unconfirmed reports continue to swirl that one of the hijackers is a former senior military official from the Chechen government, but that can not be independently confirmed at this time. A senior Russian diplomat described the leader of the hijackers as a ``highly trained military officer who appears to know what he is doing,'' according to a Reuters News service report. Meanwhile, a pro-Chechen press agency, which says it is the outlet for statements by separatist forces in Chechnya, denies that they have anything to do with the hijacking.

EmergencyNet News continues to monitor events in Saudi Arabia and Moscow and will provide additional reports as circumstances warrant...    

14:00CST - 15 Mar 2001

Hijackers Reportedly Demand "End to War in Chechnya"

Medina, Saudi Arabia (EmergencyNet News) -- According to sources close to the incident, hijackers who took-over a Vnukovo Airlines Tupolev 154 in Turkey and ordered it flown to Saudi Arabia, have now demanded "an end to the Russian military campaign in Chechnya." The ill-fated aircraft is now reportedly on the tarmac in Medina, after first landing in Jeddah and then being ordered to the Holy City of Medina by the hijackers.

"Negotiations are now under way between the Saudi authorities and the hijackers. We hope that the hijacking will end tonight,'' a diplomat reportedly told the Reuters news service.  An airline executive, however, refused to identify the nationality of the hijackers and a pro-Chechen press agency denied that "official structures of Chechnya" are involved in the hostage drama. As is customary in Saudi Arabia, few other official details concerning the continuing incident are being released. 

*****

SAUDI ARABIA

Russian Airliner Hijacked

Two men claiming to Chechens hijacked a Russian airliner carrying 174 people shortly after takeoff from Istanbul on Thursday. The hijackers forced the plane to fly to Saudi Arabia's holy city of Medina. According to Russian news agencies, the plane, a Tupolev 154 owned by Vnukovo Airlines, was taken over by two men armed with knives. Turkey said the hijackers had stabbed one person.

It was being reported that according to the airline, the hijackers were demanding an end to Russia's military campaign in Chechnya. A pro-Chechen press agency said rebels fighting the Russians in the breakaway republic were not linked to the hijack.

A Russian diplomat said Saudi authorities had started negotiations with the two hijackers. Russia's RTR television cited informed sources as saying the hijackers want to go to Afghanistan. Separately, ITAR-TASS cited undisclosed Saudi sources as saying that the hijackers have presented a series of demands, including some asking for financial compensation.

Vnukovo Airlines said the plane, originally bound for Moscow, was carrying 162 passengers, 98 of them Russian, and 12 crew. The Russian Foreign Ministry said there were 59 Turks on board. The nationalities of others on board were unknown. The Russian government has set up a special crisis team of top officials  to deal with the incident.

Turkey said the aircraft reported it had been hijacked at 06:57 EST. The plane reportedly lost 1,300 feet in altitude at one point. It was reported that the hijackers claimed to have a bomb aboard the aircraft.

The hijacking of a Russian plane in Turkey is the latest in a string of hijacks in Turkey since 1998. The last was in 1999, when a hijacker armed with a knife commandeered a Cairo-bound flight shortly after take-off from Istanbul. He surrendered to German police after the plane landed in Hamburg, Germany. None of the 46 passengers on board was harmed.

In October 1998, Turkish special forces freed passengers and crew onboard a Turkish Airlines plane after a seven-hour stand-off at Ankara Esenboga airport. The hijacker, who was armed with a hand grenade and a gun, was fatally shot. The security forces said he was a left-wing militant protesting at the war with the Kurds in southeast Turkey.

The ERRI Watch Center continues to monitor the situation closely and will issue additional reports as warranted.

*****

10:00CST - 15 Mar 2001

Russian Airliner Hijacked; Now Reported in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Istanbul, Turkey/Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (EmergencyNet News) -- A Vnukovo Airlines Tupolev 154, with 162 souls on-board, has reportedly been hijacked today by two people identified by Turkish authorities as "Chechens." The plane was believed taken by the armed skyjackers shortly after take-off from Istanbul, while enroute to Moscow, Russia.

According to official Russian sources, No group immediately claimed responsibility for the hijack and there was no confirmation that the hijackers had been identified as "Chechens." Russian President Vladimir Putin is reportedly returning to Moscow and has ordered the formulation of a special crisis team of top Kremlin officials to deal with the hijacking. Few other official details are currently available...

© EmergencyNet News Service, 2001. All rights reserved. May not be redistributed or otherwise published without the expressed permission of ERRI/EmergencyNet News.

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