Taiwan Hijacking Is 9th This Year
A man pretending to have explosives hijacked a jetliner from mainland China to Taiwan on Sunday, the Defense Ministry said.
It was the ninth hijacking from China to Taiwan this year and the second in five days.
The Xiamen Airlines Boeing 737, carrying 92 passengers and eight crew members, landed at Taipei International Airport, escorted by two Taiwan air force fighter jets.
The plane was allowed to fly back to China several hours later. The hijacker, identified as Qi Daquan, 23, was detained.
Qi told reporters at the airport that he hijacked the plane because he was unhappy with “China’s policy and legal system.”
The Defense Ministry said the hijacker commandeered the plane as it was on a flight from Harbin to Xiamen in southeast China.
On Wednesday, a Chinese businessman armed with a surgeon’s knife hijacked a Northern Airlines MD-82 plane carrying 129 passengers to Taiwan. The plane was quickly allowed to return to China and the hijacker was detained.
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