Yemeni plane carrying U.S. ambassador hijacked

ADEN, Yemen (AP) - An armed man who wanted to show support for Saddam Hussein hijacked a Yemeni plane carrying the U.S. ambassador and 90 other people yesterday and diverted it to neighboring Djibouti, where he was overpowered by the crew.

Passengers, including U.S. Ambassador Barbara Bodine, exited down the plane's emergency chute as the drama ended.

Because of the hijacking, Bodine missed an appointment with Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh at which the deadly terrorist attack on the USS Cole and increased security cooperation was expected to have been discussed. Bodine, who was accompanied by other embassy staff, flew from Djibouti back to the Yemeni capital, San'a, later yesterday. Aides said she would not comment on the hijacking.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said "really terrific action" on the part of the crew, airline officials and Yemeni authorities helped foil the hijacking. The hijacker, armed with a small handgun and possibly a grenade, was subdued by members of the Boeing 727's seven-person crew.

The man was identified as Mohammed Yehia Ali Sattar, a Yemeni who said he wanted to fly to Baghdad airport, where a series of flights seen as challenges to Iraq's international isolation have landed in recent months, Yemen's state-run Saba news agency said.

Abdulmejid Tarek of the immigration police at Djibouti airport said the hijacker was hospitalized in the Horn of Africa nation across the Gulf of Aden from Yemen, apparently with injuries inflicted by his own gun. Tarek had no details.

Acting U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Donna Visocan, contacted in San'a, said the embassy had no information on the fate of the hijacker, his motives or demands. But she said officials heard he had been unaware passengers included U.S. diplomats.

Bodine had been taking Yemenia airlines Flight 448 from San'a to Taiz, 125 miles south, for a meeting with the president.

Gen. Tommy Franks, the Florida-based commander of the U.S. Central Command, was already in Taiz to meet with Saleh, Visocan said.

She said U.S. Embassy officials had been confident the Yemenis could provide adequate airport security and it was too early to say whether the hijacking would alter that impression.

Tribal kidnappings as challenges to central authority are a regular hazard for road travelers in parts of Yemen, but security is generally tight at Yemeni airports, where Yemeni men are required to hand over their traditional daggers during flights.

Yemeni airport officials said the hijacker used the aircraft's radio to speak to them about 15 minutes into the half-hour flight, saying he would blow up the plane if it were not diverted to Djibouti.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they believed he was armed with a grenade and a pistol. The hijacker also told the tower he was a supporter of Iraq and Iraqi President Saddam

Hussein, whose troops were forced out of Kuwait a decade ago in the Persian Gulf War.

The Saudi carrier Saudia has a 49 percent stake in Yemenia, formed in 1996 with the merger of Yemenia Airlines of the former North Yemen and Al-Yemda of once-Marxist South Yemen. The unified Yemeni government owns 51 percent of the airline.

In 1994, a grenade-wielding Yemeni man stormed the cockpit of an Al-Yemda jetliner on a domestic flight and demanded to be flown to Saudi Arabia. The man was overpowered and the plane landed safely in San'a.

AP PHOTO

This plane, carrying U.S. Ambassador Barbara Bodine and 90 other passengers was hijacked yesterday. The plane was diverted from Yemen to Djibouti, where all passengers exited down the emergency chute.