BEIJING – A Chinese jetliner bound from Beijing to southern China made an emergency landing Monday after a passenger shouted that he wanted to hijack the flight to South Korea, but the unarmed man was detained and the plane took off again, state media and an airport spokeswoman said.
The Air China (search) plane was bound for the city of Changsha when it was forced to stop in Zhengzhou in central China, said the spokeswoman for the Changsha airport. She would give only her surname, Ren.
The plane landed after the passenger rushed to an onboard security guard and said he wanted to hijack the flight to South Korea, the newspaper Mirror said in a report on Chinese Web sites.
"He just shouted. He had nothing in his hands. His behavior made him seem mentally ill," the report quoted an unidentified source as saying.
It said the man, identified as Yang Jingsong, was found to be carrying only a mobile phone and other day-to-day items.
After the plane landed in Zhengzhou, police questioned passengers and searched their luggage, the newspaper said.
The plane later took off again for Changsha, Ren said.
China suffered a string of airline hijackings in the mid-1990s, which prompted a massive increase in security at airports. Such incidents have been rare in recent years.
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