Hijack flight back on track

RIYADH - A Saudi plane with 90 passengers returned safely to Saudi Arabia from Iraq yesterday, just over a day after its hijack ordeal ended peacefully in Baghdad.

"All the passengers are safe and in good health," said the Saudi Ministry of Defence and Aviation.

A host of officials, including the Deputy Minister of Defence and Aviation, had greeted the aircraft in Riyadh, it said.

The passengers, including 40 Britons and a member of the Saudi royal family, were given the choice of catching a special flight to London within hours or spending the night in a Riyadh hotel and flying to Britain later in the day.

"The special flight is due to arrive in London at 7:10 am (1810 NZT) ... that is the plan at present," said a Saudi Arabian Airlines spokesman in the English capital.

The passengers were seen off at Baghdad's Saddam International Airport by Iraqi Communications and Transport Minister Ahmed Murtada Ahmed Khalil.

"We received a fax from Saudi Arabian Airlines asking us to make arrangements for the security of the plane, the crew and the passengers," Khalil said.

"We guaranteed [their safety] and made sure the passengers had good communications with their families."

Two Saudi hijackers had commandeered the Boeing 777-200 as it was heading from the Saudi port city of Jeddah to London.

Iraqi authorities negotiated a peaceful end to the seizure and arrested the hijackers.

Television stations in the Gulf identified them as Ayeish Ali al-Khalidi and Faisel Naji al-Bluey from Saudi Arabia, and one said they worked as security guards at Jeddah airport.

"I was not aware of the hijacking until I realised that we were at another airport, not Heathrow," said passenger Jacky Doyle, a mother of two who works for the British Museum.

Maria Scott, another Briton, said: "I was very scared at first, but since we have been taken to the hotel we feel better."

British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said he was glad the hijacking had ended peacefully but refused to thank arch-foe Iraq for its role in ensuring the safety of the passengers.

"I would not thank any Government for carrying out its clear international obligations," he said in London.

Receptionists at the al-Rasheed Hotel, where the passengers spent the night, said the Saudi royal was in good shape, but did not give his name.

Saudi Arabia's relations with the Iraqi leadership under Saddam have been hostile since the 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Both Saudi Arabian and British troops were part of the United States-led alliance that drove Iraq from Kuwait.

Iraqi officials said the hijackers had twice threatened to blow up the plane.

"We are just ordinary people and we are calling for the rights of the Saudi people such as decent education, decent health and other services," one of the hijackers said at the airport, where Iraqi officials let them speak to reporters.

- REUTERS

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