4 Killed During Effort to Hijack Soviet Airliner

A Soviet stewardess and three passengers were killed during an attempt by “a group of armed criminals” to hijack an Aeroflot airliner on a domestic flight, Tass press agency reported today.

Most of the hijackers were killed in the attempt Tuesday and the remainder were captured, Tass said. It did not say how many hijackers had been involved. Their demand was to be flown out of the Soviet Union to an unknown destination.

“As a result of this terrorist act, a stewardess and three passengers were also killed. Other people were injured. They received medical assistance on the spot,” Tass said.

“The criminals were rendered harmless by measures taken,” it added. “Most of the criminals were killed. The rest were seized and will stand trial.”

Flying to Leningrad

The agency report gave no indication where the hijacking attempt was made or where the plane landed. The Aeroflot TU-154, with an unknown number of passengers aboard, was flying from Irkutsk to Leningrad, more than 2,600 miles northwest of the eastern Siberian town, with an intermediate stop in Kurgan.

The TU-154, a standard Soviet medium-haul airliner, carries about 130 passengers.

Officials at the Soviet Foreign Ministry, the Civil Aviation Ministry and the Irkutsk airport refused to give further details of the incident.

The last known hijacking attempt that took place in the Soviet Union was in September, 1986, when two armed hijackers tried to seize an Aeroflot passenger jet in the Ural mountain region. Two passengers and two policemen were killed.

There have been at least 30 hijackings or hijacking attempts against Aeroflot aircraft since the mid-1950s.