Turkish Airliner Hijacked; Passengers Freed, Not Crew

"The security of all passengers has been assured, and we averted any resort to violence," Foreign Minister George Papandreou of Greece told reporters at Eleftherios Venizelos Airport in Athens.
Turkish officials said that, at least initially, the hijacker’s only known demand was to be flown to Berlin. The plane did not have enough fuel to go that far, those officials said, and was permitted to land in Athens.
None of the passengers and none of at least eight crewmen who remained on the plane early this morning appeared to be hurt.
A passenger who spoke by cellular telephone from the plane with CNN Turk said that the hijacker was young and nervous and claimed to have a bomb. Turkish and Greek officials said that the hijacker had something that looked like explosives strapped to him.
The passenger who spoke with CNN Turk said that none of the passengers or crew had been hurt, and that the atmosphere on the plane, an Airbus 310, remained calm during its hours on the tarmac. "There is no sign of panic," he said during the interview, which took place several hours before passengers were released.
The passenger added that the hijacker "hasn’t asked for money or anything" and had not identified himself with any political cause.
Turkish officials said that several members of the Turkish Parliament were among the passengers.
An American embassy official here said early this morning that he did not know if there were any Americans on the flight, one of many every day between Istanbul, which is Turkey’s most populous city, and Ankara, the capital.
Turkish officials said that the flight, Turkish Airlines Flight 160, was commandeered shortly after it left Istanbul at around 10 p.m. Those officials said that the hijacker apparently stormed the *censored*pit after the plane was already in the air.
As the plane touched down in Athens around midnight, military vehicles, antiterrorism troops and ambulances sped toward it and surrounded it.
Turkey has been tense ever since the beginning of the war in Iraq, which borders southeastern Turkey, and Turkish officials have been concerned about terrorism here. But there was no evidence early on today that the hijacking was a terrorist act.