There was trouble in the skies over Belarus today. According to reports from Russian and Turkish news services, a drunken passenger flying on a Turkish Airlines flight claimed he had a bomb and threatened to detonate it unless he was taken to the cockpit of the Airbus A-320. But other passengers tackled the man, and the plane continued on to its destination in St. Petersburg.
"The hooligan landed with everyone else," an unnamed Russian airport official told Russia's Interfax news agency. "He has been taken off the plane and handed over to police." Some reports identified the unruly passenger as an Uzbek native; others said he was Russian.
According to reports, the charter flight carrying 160 passengers from the Mediterranean coastal city of Antalya to Russia's historic capital was passing over Belarus when the passenger approached a flight attendant and handed her a note claiming he was armed with explosives. Some of the other passengers tried to calm him down, but to no avail.
"[The passenger] began to get more aggressive and said that he'd kill everyone," a woman told the Russian news agency. "Only one of the passengers in a military uniform was able to calm down the drunk man, bind his arms and lock him in a toilet."