Hijacking suspect killed after Dubai-bound flight makes emergency landing

A Dubai-bound flight made an emergency landing in southeastern
Bangladesh on Sunday after a man attempted to hijack the plane,
authorities said.

The man, described by authorities as a terrorist, was fatally
shot by military commandos who stormed the plane after it landed at
an airport in Chittagong, an official told the Associated Press,
declining to specify exactly where the shooting occurred.

The flight, operated by state-run Biman Bangladesh Airlines,
took off from Dhaka, the country’s capital, in the afternoon and
had to make the emergency detour just 40 minutes and 150 miles
later, officials said.

More than 140 passengers and seven crew members were on the
Boeing 737-800 jet, and all were safely evacuated, a air vice
marshal for the Bangladesh Air Force said at a news conference.

The pilot decided to make the landing and alert authorities
after a crew member noticed the potential hijacker’s “suspicious
behavior,” Reuters reported. Agence France-Presse said one
passenger saw the man “fire twice” while the plane was in the
air.

Bangladesh: Tense situation as police
surround a plane at Chattogram airport after it was reported to be
hijacked. The Dubai bound Biman plane is identified as flight
BG147. pic.twitter.com/BtessHtKyZ^[1]

— Sidhant Sibal (@sidhant) February
24, 2019^[2]

The suspect, an unnamed Bangladeshi man believed to be 25,
threatened the pilot and demanded to talk to Prime Minister Sheikh
Hasina, army Maj. Gen. Matiur Rahman said, AP reported.

The man appeared unhinged, and M. Naim Hassan, chairman of the
Bangladeshi aviation authority, called him “mentally
imbalanced.”

“I am saying this because of his behavior,” Hassan said. “He
wanted to talk to the prime minister.”

Authorities said they surrounded the aircraft and, after a brief
standoff, captured the man. Rahman said the military commandos
fired at him only after he shot at them when asked to
surrender.

“We tried to talk to him, but he took an attacking position. Our
commandos had to move swiftly. They took action. He was brought out
injured but later died,” Rahman said, according to Bangladeshi
newspaper the Daily Star.

“It was a swift operation,” he said. “We didn’t even have the
time to name the operation.”