China to Try Soviet Hijacker

PEKING — China will prosecute a Soviet co-pilot who hijacked an Aeroflot commercial airliner with 42 people aboard and flew it into northeastern China last December, the Foreign Ministry announced today.

The announcement was Peking’s first on the fate of the Soviet hijacker, detained in China since he forced his Antonov 24 aircraft across the Sino-Soviet border and landed it in a cow pasture in northeastern Heilongjiang province last Dec. 19. The plane and its Soviet passengers were returned to the Soviet Union two days later.