The crew of a Chinese domestic airliner foiled a hijacking attempt Wednesday, and the Boeing 737-300 aeroplane was safely landed in Jinan, capital of East China's Shandong Province.
The hijacking took place on Xinhua Airlines flight XW126, which took off from Baotou, the second largest city in North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, at 7:20 am on its way to Beijing.
In mid-flight, one of the 143 passengers attempted to hijack the plane with a knife, but was immediately overpowered by crew members, sources close to the airline said.
The captain was injured in the scuffle as crew members seized the hijacker's knife and stabbed him. Sources with Jinan Airport said the hijacker might have died after he was sent to a local hospital when the plane landed.
The plane was forced to divert from its original route and land in Jinan at 9:36 am.
The hijacker, whose surname is Li, was identified as a vagrant from Baotou, aged between 25 and 30. Another man on board, though he did not join the scuffle, is suspected to be the accomplice of the hijacker and is now being interrogated in Jinan.
The hijacker's motives and desired destination are still not clear, but an official with Jinan Airport, who asked not to be named, said that the plane had begun to head southeast before the hijacker was overwhelmed and the plane made its emergency landing in Jinan.
Officials with the Civil Aviation Administration of China, Xinhua Airlines and Jinan Airport refused to formally comment on the incident.
All passengers on the plane were unharmed and reached Beijing at 4:43 pm yesterday on another Xinhua Airlines' Boeing 737 aeroplane.
Earlier this month, two drunken men caused a hijacking scare in a plane bound for the southern city of Guangzhou when one of them told a steward the man sitting beside him was about to hijack the plane.
The pair were held by the crew and detained by police shortly after the plane landed in Guangzhou.
Earlier this year, a passenger with a knife tried to hijack a China Southwest Airlines plane bound for the southeastern city of Fuzhou, but he was also overpowered by the crew.
Xinhua Airlines, established in August 1992 in Beijing, is one of the main passenger and cargo carriers in China. It now has nine Boeing 737 aeroplanes operating on more than 40 domestic air routes.
(China Daily 09/28/2000)
