Released Hostages of Russian Plane Brought Back to Moscow

Released Hostages of Russian Plane Brought Back to Moscow

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An Il-62 airplane carrying 121 passengers of the hijacked Russian Tu-154 passenger plane, arrived at the Moscow Vnukovo airport at 5:10 a.m. Moscow time (1410GMT) Saturday after a five-hour flight.

Russian Deputy Prime Minster Valentina Matviyenko and representatives from the Turkish and Saudi embassies in Moscow met the flight at the airport.

Most of the 121 passengers aboard are citizens from Russia and other states of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), while a few of them from Turkey.

The wounded steward Alexander Khromov and a woman passenger suffering a heart attack, were also included.

The Il-62's crew had asked the ground services for an ambulance for two or other possible patients.

The plane also brought back the body of the 27-year-old stewardess Yulia Fomina, who was stabbed to death by hijackers during the storming operation by the Saudi security forces at the Medina airport, Saudi Arabia.

The hijackers, believed to be Chechen terrorists, are not aboard and still held in Medina, waiting for the Saudi decision as to whether to extradite them to Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday thanked Saudi King Fahd Abdul-Aziz for Saudi assistance in settling the hijacking crisis, meanwhile expressing the hope for soonest extradition of the terrorists to Russia.

The Russian Tu-154 airliner, with 166 passengers on board, was hijacked half an hour after taking off from Istanbul, Turkey Thursday afternoon and then forced to land at Medina airport.

The Saudi security forces stormed the plane at noon on Friday, capturing three hijackers and releasing all hostages.