Photograph by Pieter van Marion
A Pegasus Airlines plane has safely landed in Istanbul after a passenger reportedly shouted that there was a bomb on board and tried to get the plane redirected to Sochi, where the Winter Olympics are currently being held.
The alleged hijacker, who is believed to be Ukrainian, was subdued and is now in custody, and investigators have not found any explosives on the jet.
Turkey scrambled two F-16 jets to escort the plane once it entered the country’s airspace, and the air crew reportedly tricked the man into believing that they were landing at Sochi after darkening the screens in the cabin and cockpit.
The plane currently in a “safe zone” at Istanbul’s Sabiha Gokcen airport, with 110 passengers permitted to disembark after a short delay.
There is no information yet as to why he was attempting to divert the plane, although AP are reporting that the Ukrainian Security Service said that the man was in a state of “severe intoxication”
The plane had been flying between Kharkov,Ukraine, and Istanbul, Turkey,