Plane hijacking foiled at Moscow airport

MOSCOW - A man who allegedly tried to hijack a passenger plane at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport was detained Thursday.

The plane on a domestic flight from Russia’s North Caucasus city of Mineralniye Vody to Moscow was due to land at 1145 GMT, Xinhua reported.

However, “before the aircraft landed, one of the passengers had a message passed to the captain that one of the people on board possesses valuable information for law enforcement agencies,” said a transportation police spokesman.

The captain then reported the incident to ground services and steered the aircraft to a special landing site.

The man, 40, then demanded appearances of senior officials and reporters at the airport, while taking all the people on board the plane as hostages.

However, as one of the passengers fell ill and the hijacker allowed doctors to board the plane, special forces personnel disguised as doctors aboard and seized him.