Albawaba.com
Amman
A source at Jordan’s civil aviation authority has said in a statement to Albawaba.com that the man who attempted early Thursday to hijack the Royal Jordanian plane en route to Amman from Sanaa had passed a message to the captain telling him that “an outside party had assigned him to hijack the plane.”
The source, who asked for anonymity, quoted the hijacker as saying he did not want to carry out the mission, without naming the party that ordered him to execute the hijacking.
According to the source, the unidentified man said that he likes Jordan and does not want “to cause any harm to the country,” and promised to disclose all details to the press.
The source added that Jordan’s security authorities are interrogating the hijacker. He declined to give further details.
However, Al Jazira satellite channel quoted Jordanian officials that the hijacker was an Iraqi national.
AFP had reported that the attempt to hijack the flight was foiled Thursday and the plane landed safely at its destination, Jordanian civil aviation authorities said.
The hijacker surrendered to Jordanian police when the Royal Jordanian plane landed an hour later than scheduled, at 7:55 a.m. (0455 GMT), the authorities said.
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
