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Soviet Jet Hijacked to Sweden; Police Arrest Youth, 17

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From Times Wire Services

A Soviet teen-ager, angry because his parents told him to leave home, hijacked an airliner to Sweden.

The 17-year-old youth, brandishing a fake hand grenade, seized the Aeroflot jet as it flew from Minsk to Murmansk late Friday, Swedish police spokesman Lena Philipsson said.

He surrendered when the plane landed early Saturday at Stockholm’s Arlanda airport. It left soon after to complete the flight to the naval base city of Murmansk.

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None of the 121 passengers and crew on the TU-154 jet were hurt.

Police arrested the suspect, whom the official Soviet news agency Tass identified as Dmitri Semyonov, and took him to Stockholm for questioning.

Government officials said no decision was made on whether he would be tried in Sweden or returned to the Soviet Union.

Semyonov’s attorney, Birger Ohlson, said the youth fought with his father about a broken moped, a motorized bicycle. “His father reprimanded him for not having repaired it properly, so the boy got angry and sold the moped. His father wanted the money, and when he didn’t get it, he took the keys and drove him out.”

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