Hijacked Jet Flies to France; Envoy Killed

The Algerian government let Muslim extremists fly to France with about 175 hostages aboard a hijacked jetliner early today after a French diplomat became the third passenger killed in a two-day airport standoff.

The Air France plane was commandeered Saturday in the most dramatic act yet in a 3-year-old guerrilla war against Algeria’s military-installed government.

The plane left early this morning and landed about two hours later in Marseilles. At press time, there were no immediate reports from Marseilles.

The French Foreign Ministry said Algerian President Liamine Zeroul granted permission after talking with France’s Prime Minister Edouard Balladur.

It wasn’t clear what the five hijackers want. Earlier it had been reported that there were four gunmen. A news report said the men demanded freedom for two jailed Muslim leaders. But an Interior Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Sunday they had dropped that demand.

The hijackers, armed with two Kalashnikov rifles and two handguns, killed two passengers Saturday and freed about 60 hostages, mostly women and children.

Before Algeria granted permission Sunday for the plane to leave, the third victim was dumped from the plane about 9:30 p.m. French news reports said that was a deadline set earlier by the hijackers to depart, and that they were threatening to kill more hostages.

The French Foreign Ministry identified the passenger killed Sunday as Yannick Beugnet, assigned to the French Embassy in Algiers. He was the 23rd French citizen killed by the extremists.

The French Foreign Ministry statement late Sunday indicated France was pressuring Algeria to let the plane take off. It said the hijackers threatened to kill a French hostage if a boarding ramp wasn’t removed from the plane.

“The hostages are our primary concern,” French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told French television earlier Sunday.

Tense negotiations were conducted by radio between the control tower and the gunmen speaking from the cockpit of the Airbus.

The jet had 227 passengers and 12 crew aboard when it was taken over shortly before takeoff Saturday, officials said. Air France earlier said 271 passengers were aboard.

The last female passengers were off the plane, but female flight attendants remained, said an Air France spokeswoman.

One freed hostage described how one passenger, an Algerian police officer, was pleading for his life before he was shot in the head.

“He screamed, ‘Don’t kill me! I am married! I have a child!’ ” said the woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The gunmen also killed a Vietnamese passenger and dumped the two bodies on the ramp outside the plane, Algerian officials said.

Air France declined to give the passengers’ nationalities but authorities said most of them were Algerian. U.S. officials said there was no word of any Americans aboard. Juppe said 40 French nationals remained on the plane.

The gunmen reportedly had demanded the release of Abassi Madani and Ali Belhadj, the No. 1 and No. 2 leaders of the banned Islamic Salvation Front.