Tirana Hijack: Crew Interview
engines and other airport vehicles. ND: The crew seated themselves in PB: From the pictures it looks as if
The flashing lights, of various colours, seats 1A, 1B, 2A and 2B in case the Ekinci followed you down the steps?
in the dark was quite a sight. aircraft was stormed; we wanted to MG: Yes. Ekinci surrenedered and
PB: Presumably the passengers make sure we were out of the way. was taken away by the police. The
were wondering why they were being PB: Once the negotiators had Italian authorities then made all
kept on board so long? arrived, what happened? passengers deplane with their
ND: No. They understood. As soon MG: All communication between the belongings and they were taken to the
as we had landed everybody turned on tower and the aircraft was via me, not terminal by bus. One woman
their mobile phones. Then they found directly with the hijacker. We told complained she had missed her flight
out from their homes that they had them Ekinci wanted to claim asylum. connection to Singapore! Nazenin was
been hijacked and that the story was We were told that the First Officer the last to leave the aircraft.
all over the news. should deplane first and that I should PB: What happened once you were
PB: How did they respond? follow 30 minutes later, followed by released?
ND: Everybody was calm. People the three hijackers; the passengers MG: We expected to leave Brindisi
just started talking to each other. “Hey and cabin crew were to remain on within two to three hours, but we were
we were hijacked”! There was only one board until later. So, the First Officer actually there for almost 12 hours.
objection – “why didn’t we get any got off and, rather than be taken The Italian prosecutor questioned a
food”? The Captain had told me to straight to the terminal, he was couple of the passengers, Nazenin
serve the passengers once we had immediately subjected to questioning and myself; they never spoke to First
landed when he eventually spoke to by the media; I saw it happening from Officer. The prosecutor couldn’t
me from the cockpit five or ten the cockpit. Then it was my turn. As I speak English and it was obviously
minutes before landing. And, as it was left the cockpit, I made an his first time in such a role. Two
after 6pm and getting dark, those who announcement to the passengers Turkish Airlines representatives from
had been observing the fast of saying that the hijackers were Milan and Rome came to help with
Ramadan were hungry. surrendering. An Albanian police-man translation and they also arranged
PB: Other than serve the passengers, on board translated for me. I then refreshments for the passengers. As
what did the cabin crew do whilst the deplaned, still believing there were this was going on, we just sat and
aircraft was on the ground? three hijackers. talked and said we were happy to trianglert
Aviationsecurityinternational April 2007 11
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