Arriving Pilot Says He Wasn’t Told of Hijack

Algerian air traffic controllers didn’t tell the crew of a French jetliner that was landing in Algiers that Muslim militants had hijacked another French plane at the airport, a pilot said Friday.

Told by security guards that his aircraft could be the next target, the Air Inter pilot said his plane discharged its passengers, then quickly took off.

The pilot told French state radio that the Algiers control tower failed to tell him about the hijacking of an Air France jet, which began while he was on a landing approach.

The Air France drama was the third hijacking this year at the Algiers airport. The four hijackers killed three passengers before they were killed by French commandos who stormed the airliner in Marseilles.

The Air Inter pilot, who wasn’t identified, said the hijacking had been under way for 30 minutes when his jet arrived at the gate “and the tower didn’t tell us anything. It was French security police with Air France who said to leave as quickly as possible.

“We let off the passengers, closed the doors and took off,” he told FranceInfo radio. “Ten minutes earlier I was beginning my descent. I could have turned around right away.”

An Air Inter spokeswoman who declined to be identified said that the plane, arriving from Marseilles, took off with the passengers’ baggage still on board. She said an investigation was under way.

Algerian authorities have promised to increase security at Houari Boumediene Airport.