Russian airliner hijacked on domestic flight

BAKU, Azerbaijan - A Russian airliner with 58 people aboard was hijacked and ordered to fly to Israel early Sunday. The plane landed briefly in Azerbaijan and then resumed its flight, officials said.

At least two hijackers armed with an automatic rifle and an explosive device were on the plane, the Interfax news agency reported.

The plane was seized shortly after taking off from the southern Russian republic of Dagestan on a trip to Moscow, Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry said. The hijackers demanded to be taken to Tel Aviv, it said.

The aircraft, a Tu-154 of Dagestan Airlines, then landed at the Azerbaijan capital of Baku. Authorities there negotiated with the hijackers and agreed to refuel the plane, but gave no information about the identity or motive of the hijackers. Security forces ringed the airport during the negotiations.

While Baku airport officials said the plane was headed for Tel Aviv, the ITAR-Tass news agency said the hijackers demanded maps of other areas, but gave no details.

Officials at Israel's international Ben-Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv said they were following the hijacking, adding that the aircraft had no permission to land in Israel, Israel army radio reported.

Dagestan is a Muslim region adjoining Chechnya, where the Russian military is attempting to suppress an independence revolt by Islamic nationalists. Dagestan was the scene of heavy fighting last year between Russian forces and Islamic radicals.

There have been a series of plane hijackings in Russia in recent years, most of which ended with the hijackers being seized by Russian security forces.

There have also been numerous high-profile cases of hostage-taking in the region, with the kidnappers demanding high ransom and aircraft in exchange for their hostages.

Sunday's hijacking was reminiscent of a December 1988 incident when four Soviet citizens commandeered a busload of schoolchildren in the same area and traded the hostages for drugs, money and safe passage in a flight to Israel.

Israel allowed the plane to land and the hijackers surrendered. They were swiftly deported back to the Soviet Union and sentenced to long prison terms.