Hijacking Under the Influence

Victoria Watson

Staff Writer

     On the Friday of February 7th, a man attempted to hijack a plane headed from Kharkov,Ukraine to Turkey during flight over The Black Sea. He claimed there was a bomb on board the plane while attempting to enter the cockpit of the plane by threatening pilots with what he claimed to be a “detonator” and demanded for the plane to land in Sochi, Russia, where the 2014 Winter Olympics are now taking place. Pilots were forced to make an early landing in Istanbul, Turkey, forcing 110 passengers to exit the plane while while Turkish police searched for the bomb.

     Many thought it could have been terrorist attempt from the Caucasus region of Russia, who 

earlier threatened to make an attack on the Winter Games. This was brought up because the hijacking of the plane was made during the opening ceremony of the Sochi Winter Olympics.

     After the search had been made, Turkish special forces swiftly took the suspect who was found to be an older, Ukrainian man, into custody. No one who was on board the plane was harmed and there was no actual bomb to be found on the aircraft, as the hijacker had claimed and had not gained any access to the plane's cockpit.

     Istanbul Governor, Huseyin Avni Mutlu later spoke with reporters saying that the suspect at 

hand was intoxicated and, “didn't seem to have consumed alcohol, but he may have used some others substances.” Though many other claim that the, track suite wearing, “air pirate” called so by Turkish public, may have been intensely drunk. There is no word yet on what the suspect meant to do if the plane had made it to Sochi or weather or not he actually was just too intoxicated to even grasp what he was doing at the time.

     This is a very tense time with all the pressure Russia is under with terrorist threats, hosting the Winter Olympics, and ban of gay rights, yet the games have gone on as planned.