Hijacker of Cuban Plane Surrenders to US Police

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, April 02, 2003

Hijacker of Cuban Plane Surrenders to US Police

The hijacker who forced a Cuban Airlines plane to land at an international airport in Florida on Tuesday has surrendered to US police, local media reports said.

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The hijacker who forced a Cuban Airlines plane to land at an international airport in Florida on Tuesday has surrendered to US police, local media reports said.

The twin-prop Antonov-24 landed at the Key West International Airport under US military escort at 11:34 EST (16:34 GMT), about 50 minutes after taking off from Havana's Jose Marti InternationalAirport, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Christopher White said.

White said 31 people were aboard the plane. The hijacker released two groups of passengers hours before taking off from Havana.

The plane with 46 people aboard was hijacked late Monday by a man claiming to have grenades on a flight from Cuba's small Isle of Youth to Havana, Cuban authorities said. The hijacker threatened to explode the grenade unless he was flown to Florida, but the plane was forced to land at Havana because it did not have enough fuel to flow across the Florida Straits.

Some passengers including children were allowed to leave the plane at Havana after a 12-hour stand-off that closed the airport to all flights. The plane was refueled before it left Havana at about 10:45 EST (15:45 GMT).

It was the second hijacking from Cuba to Florida in less than a month. Six people hijacked a twin-engine Douglas DC-3 with 25 passengers and a crew of six aboard from Cuba to Key West at knifepoint on March 19.

The six suspected hijackers, who surrendered to police after the plane landed at the Florida airport, were charged with conspiracy to seize an aircraft by force and violence and face a minimum of up to 20 years in federal prison.

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