Bomb threat hijacker seizes plane carrying 131

A HIJACK ended today after lone man holding an airliner with 131 people on board surrendered to police after talking to a psychiatrist.

Authorities said they believed the hijacker, Spaniard named Javier Gomez, was mentally ill.

The drama started at 8.25am, 50 minutes after the Iberia Boeing 727 took off from Seville on a domestic flight to Barcelona with 124 passengers and seven crew on board. The plane was forced to land at Valencia airport where the hijacker demanded it be refuelled and made ready to fly to Israel, or else he would detonate a bomb. After taxiing to the airport's service area, the plane was surrounded by armed Civil Guards. The hijacker finally surrendered after five hours of negotiations conducted by radio and mobile phone. All the passengers were unharmed. The hijacker had taken over Flight 1121 in mid-flight, producing a package and what looked like a remote control handset and said he would detonate a bomb unless his demands were met. He claimed to have two accomplices on the flight. The plane then made its unscheduled landing at Valencia on Spain's east coast. At first the hijacker had demanded to be taken to Athens, but after the plane had landed he changed his desired destination to Tel Aviv in Israel.

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