Hijack of Yemen jet foiled, U.S. envoy in Sanaa

A Yemeni claiming to be a supporter of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was overpowered by crew members after hijacking a Yemeni plane with 91 passengers aboard including the U.S. ambassador to Yemen, witnesses said. The plane was making a domestic flight from the Yemeni capital Sanaa to the southern city of Taiz.

Pilot Amer Anis told a Reuter correspondent who also happened to be on the plane that the hijacker, armed with a pen-shaped pistol, had threatened to blow up the Boeing 727 if it was not diverted to Baghdad.

"We persuaded him with difficulty to land in Djibouti to refuel. Once there, I managed to let most of the passengers disembark from the emergency exit," Anis said.

The passengers included the U.S. ambassador Barbara Bodine, the U.S. military and political attaches at the Sanaa embassy and a protocol official from the office of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Eleven crew members were also on board the plane.

They were due to meet Saleh in Taiz. But the Yemeni president sent a special plane that flew the officials back to Sanaa. The other passengers and crew members remained in Djibouti. But U.S. and Yemeni officials, evidently surprised by the last-minute change in the original plan, declined comment.

The U.S. and Yemeni officials were to join U.S. Army General Tommy Franks, who was to hold talks with Saleh in Taiz on military cooperation and the investigation into the apparent suicide bombing of the U.S. destroyer Cole in October.

Franks, head of the U.S. Central Command, was on his second visit to Yemen since the October 12 bombing of the Cole which killed 17 U.S. sailors. It was not immediately clear if the Yemeni president had already met Franks in Taiz or had returned to Sanaa.

Djibouti's Interior Minister Abdallah Abdillahi Miguil said the hijacker had agreed to release all the passengers soon after landing in Djibouti but had kept hostage four crew members, including the pilot, and demanded that the plane be refuelled before continuing to Baghdad.

"While we were negotiating with the hijacker, the crew members held hostage managed to overpower him," Abdallah Abdillahi told Reuters.

"All the passengers have been released and the hijacker has been handed over to the Djibouti authorities," he said. An airport official said earlier that the hijacker was carrying a pistol and that the flight engineer was slightly injured in the hand.

"Two shots were fired in the air, but all the remaining passengers and crew are safe," the official said. Anis said the hijacker was a Yemeni in his 40s. Witnesses said he had threatened to blow up a suitcase full of explosives.

The Yemeni president later sent a special plane to bring the officials and some of the passengers back to Taiz. The U.S. officials declined to comment on their ordeal. The hijacker, sitting in the first class section of the plane, commandeered the plane about 10 minutes into the flight. The plane circled for more than one hour before heading to Djibouti. At least 10 children were on the plane.

The passengers won their freedom thanks to the quick thinking of their pilot who realised their abductor had little command of English. The man claiming to be a supporter of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was also unaware that the Yemen Airways flight that he commandeered was carrying U.S. ambassador to Sanaa Barbara Bodine and four of her aides.

Pilot Amer Anis began giving the copilot and flight engineer instructions in English on looking after the passengers when he realised the hijacker, who was in the cockpit, did not understand what was being said.

Once he realised this, the pilot told his crew in English that as soon as they landed at Djibouti airport they should open the emergency doors and evacuate the 91 passengers. When the plane landed, this correspondent, who was on the flight from Yemen's capital Sanaa to the southern city of Taiz, heard the captain order the crew: "Start with the ambassador and her team, quickly, quickly."

Passengers moved quickly to the rear of the Boeing 727 and jumped, one by one, out of the plane onto emergency shutes. Anis told Reuters later that the hijacker, a Yemeni in his 40s, started screaming when he saw the empty plane, waving a miniature pistol that looked like a long pen.

"He started shouting and threatening me 'you will be the first to die'," Anis said. One crew member fired foam from a fire extinguisher into the hijacker's face in an attempt to blind him. Another tried to wrestle him down.

"The hijacker fired one bullet, slightly injuring a flight engineer in his left arm," Anis added. An airport official said two shots were fired, but all passengers and crew were safe and the hijacker arrested.

Bodine and her team appeared calm throughout the ordeal. They declined to make any comment during the hijack and after it ended. They were due to join Army General Tommy Franks, head of the U.S. Central Command, who was on his second visit to Yemen since the October 12 bombing of the USS Cole destroyer which killed 17 U.S. sailors in Aden harbour.

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh met Franks in Taiz without the U.S. diplomats and instead sent a presidential jet that took them back to Sanaa.

The hijack of the Boeing started less than 10 minutes into the flight and before the seat belt light was switched off. The hijacker stood up and moved from economy to the first class section of the plane where the U.S. diplomats and two senior Yemeni officials sat.

The man, wearing a dark grey jacket, placed a small handbag on an empty chair close to the cockpit. When a hostess tried to stop him, he pushed her aside. "I am hijacking this plane. Nobody touches this bag. It is full of explosives," he shouted before storming into the cockpit.

"I am a follower of Saddam Hussein and I want to fly to Baghdad," the hijacker added in Arabic.