A flight attendant hijacked an Iranian jetliner after it took off from Tehran Tuesday, forcing the pilot and more than 170 people on board to land at a remote Israeli air force base.
The hijacker, a man in his 30s, reportedly sought political asylum in the United States. He surrendered less than an hour after the Kish Air Boeing 707 touched down at the Ovda Airforce Base in Israel's southern Negev Desert.The flight attendant "was sick of being in Iran, prepared a pistol, hijacked the plane and forced the crew to come here," said Israel's armed forces chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Amnon Shahak.
Iran's official news agency charged that there had been collusion between Israel and the hijacker and that Israel was always the hijacker's final destination.
About three hours after the plane landed, the passengers, including women wearing black chadors and children, walked off the plane. Some were in tears. They were taken to a lounge on the base where they were given food and water, and diapers and milk for children.
Kish Air, reached by telephone in Iran, said none of the passengers was injured.
Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin said the hijacking began when one of the flight attendants pulled out a pistol as the plane was en route from Tehran to the Persian Gulf resort island of Kish, 650 miles to the southeast.