We're Off to See the Pope

I am not sure if it made the international news wires, but a Turkish Airlines flight from Tirana to Istanbul was hijacked last week. Long story made short, the flight was hijacked by one man who forced his way into the cockpit. He had no weapons, but claimed to have an accomplice in the cabin that had a bomb. Turns out that he was a Turkish army defector that had moved to Albania and been denied a visa to stay long term, so he was being deported. He was a converted Catholic, so he forced the pilots to fly to Italy in the hopes that he would be able to deliver a message asking the Pope to intervene so that he would not have to go back to Turkey and serve in a “Muslim” army. Here is a link, if you want a description of the whole story.

In retrospect, seeing as how now one was injured, the situation was actually quite amusing to watch on TV. After the plane had landed in Brindisi, one of the Albanian TV stations was able to get a connection to one of the captive passenger’s cell phones. Of course, the anchor, with a grave tone, asked the passenger if he was okay and to explain what had happened when the plane was hijacked. His response was that he didn’t even really know that the plane had been hijacked. For some unknown reason they were in Italy and he was more concerned about the fact that they had been sitting there a long time and the flight attendants hadn’t given them anything to eat or drink.

As is expected, the situation was branded as terrorism. This has unfortunately started the wonderful, two-party political fighting we experienced in America post 9/11. I had some deja vu hearing the Socialist Party demand to know what the ministry knew and when they did they know it. From what I have heard, however, the fault seems to be with the flight attendants. The man had no weapons or other objects, and he only was able to get into the cockpit because the flight attendants kept opening the door.

Yesterday, I found out that someone I know was actually on the flight, so I will be interested in hearing a firsthand account.