Ukraine launches terror probe over Turkish plane hijack bid

Ukraine on Saturday launched a terror probe into a bid by an apparently drunk man to force an airliner flying to Turkey to land in Sochi where leaders gathered for the opening of the Winter Olympic Games.

"We have launched an investigation into an attempt to commit an act of terror and an attempt to hijack a plane," Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) investigative department chief Maxim Lenko told reporters.

Lenko said the Ukrainian — reported by one official in Kyiv as being "in an advanced state of drunkenness" — was opposed to the politics of President Viktor Yanukovych and his Russian counterpart and ally Vladimir Putin.

The Ukrainian investigator said the man on Friday demanded that the Istanbul-bound Boeing 737 jet be flown to Sochi where Yanukovych was holding crisis talks with Putin on the sidelines of the Games' opening ceremony.

The would-be hijacker "said the hands of Yanukovych and Putin were drenched in blood," said Lenko.

The investigator added that the man had also demanded the release of Ukrainian "hostages" — a reference to dozens of demonstrators detained by police during the sometimes violent anti-government rallies that have been rattling Kyiv for more than two months.

Putin's high-stakes meeting with Yanukovych was expected to focus on the Ukrainian leader's determination to ignore the demands of pro-EU protesters and stick to an economic alliance with Kyiv's historic master Moscow.

The battle for the political future of Ukraine has pitted the interests of Russia against those of the West while also underscoring the deep political and cultural divide splitting the ex-Soviet nation of 46 million people.

Tied up with rope

The Ukrainian man — identified by Turkish media as 45-year-old Atryom Kozlov —brandished what he said was a detonator as he tried gaining access to the cockpit of an aircraft operated by Turkey's Pegasus Airlines which left from the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv with 110 people on board.

Turkey scrambled two F-16 jets to force down the airliner at Istanbul's Sabiha Gokcen airport. The man was immediately taken into custody and turned out to have neither a gun nor explosives.

Lenko said the man was tied up with rope by the crew after being tricked into believing that the plane's flight was being reversed toward Sochi.

"This was not something very serious," Turkish Transport Minister Lutfi Elvan told reporters in Istanbul. "It was an act of a single individual" that was not linked to any terror network, he added.

The incident occurred in the middle of the lavish Sochi opening ceremony and highlighted the security challenges facing the Games due their proximity to the restless North Caucasus region where Russian forces are battling an Islamic insurgency.

Ukraine's protest turmoil erupted in November when Yanukovych ditched an historic EU agreement under Russian pressure and instead sought a massive economic bailout from Putin — a move that infuriated the more pro-European and nationalist west of the ex-Soviet state.

Lenko said the would-be hijacker — while backing the Ukrainian opposition — came from the eastern industrial city of Kharkiv that is seen as a bastion of the embattled president's traditional base of pro-Russian support.

Yanukovych's political future depends in large part on the industrial eastern and southern parts of his country to avoid being swept up by the anti-Russian sentiment gripping the rest of the country and much of the capital Kiev.

Lenko said the suspect bought his plane ticket on the day of the flight in Kharkiv and raised no initial suspicions from airport personnel.

The man is expected to remain in Turkey during the course of the investigation and face his first court hearing in Istanbul on Sunday.

He faces 10 years in prison if tried and convicted in Ukraine and two decades in jail if found guilty of similar charges in Turkey.

Agence France-Presse contributed to this report.