As Upgrade Travel reports, a Turkish hijacker took over a Turkish Airlines flight from Tirana, Albania to Istanbul. The flight was diverted to Brindisi, Italy. The hijacker was apparently attempting to communicate with the Pope and was later identified as Hakan Ekinci, a convert to Christianity who wanted the Pope’s help to avoid compulsory military service in Turkey.
Originally the news, including Upgrade Travel, had quote police sources as saying the plane had been hijacked in protest of a planned November visit to Turkey by the Pope after his inflammatory remarks. We look forward to more information on how this hijack occurred if the hijacker possessed no weapons. There appear to be conflicting accounts as to the number of hijackers and the method used.
In a positive move, Reuters reports that the hijacker apologized to the passengers in English and Albanian as he was leaving the plane. Perhaps he was looking for an excuse to talk to the beauty queens on board, returning from the Globe International 2006 beauty contest in Albania. There is no word on what Miss India, Miss Singapore, Miss Malaysia, and Miss Phillipines had to say about their harrowing experience.
