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Russian Plane Leaves for Saudi Arabia to Pick Up Released Hostages
An Il-62 plane left here Friday night for the Saudi city of Medina to pick up the released passengers of the hijacked Russian Tu-154 airliner, the Interfax said.
The plane, belonging to the state-run airlines of Rossiya, took off at 9:03 p.m. Moscow time (1903) and carries secret service men and journalists onboard.
Saudi security forces earlier today stormed the plane, which was hijacked Thursday afternoon half an hour after taking off from the Turkish city of Istanbul, seizing three hijackers and freeing all hostages.
Three people, including one hijacker, one flight attendant and a Turkish passenger were killed during the operation.
A spokesman for the Moscow Vnukovo Airlines, which owns the hijacked plane, said earlier that those freed passengers could be back in Moscow by Saturday afternoon.
It would take six hours to fly to Medina and four to five hours for "organizational measures at the scene," the spokesman told Russia's RTR television.
After the six-hour return flight, the passengers could arrive in Moscow in the middle of Saturday.
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