PRAGUE, Czech Republic – An apparent hijacking attempt by a man claiming to be carrying a bomb forced a Russian Aeroflot airliner to make an emergency landing at Prague's Ruzyne international airport Thursday, authorities said.
The suspect was subdued and detained, and was slightly injured, police said. They did not provide any details of the injury. Authorities said they did not suspect terrorism.
The Airbus A320 was flying from Moscow to Geneva on Thursday morning when the man apparently tried to break into the cockpit, demanding that the plane fly to Africa, police spokesman Pavel Hantak said.
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The suspect, a Russian citizen, was "pacified on board the plane" and then taken into custody by Czech officers when the jet landed, he said.
The plane landed in Prague shortly before 11 a.m., according to airport spokeswoman Pavlina Hajkova.
The suspect claimed "he had an explosive device," Aeroflot deputy director Lev Koshlyakov told Russia's Rossiya television.
Police were searching the plane for possible explosives, Hantak said.
Aeroflot identified the passenger as Yevgeny Dagayev, born in 1974.
"He demanded a change of route to Cairo," said Aeroflot spokeswoman Irina Dannenberg.
Authorities did not suspect a terror plot, said Jan Subert, spokesman for the Czech counterintelligence service, the BIS. "From what we know, the incident had nothing to do with terrorism," he said.
It was not immediately clear whether the suspect had been drunk.
Two Gripen jet fighters were on alert, Czech Defense Ministry spokesman Andrej Cirtek said. "We had two planes in the air ready to intervene, but no intervention was necessary," he said.
The suspect was traveling with eight family members, including three children, Hantak said. He said the family was not involved in the incident.
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