A would-be hijacker was shot and killed by Bangladeshi commandos after attempting to hijack a passenger plane and forcing the pilot to make an emergency landing, authorities said.
Biman Bangladesh Airlines flight BG-147 had taken off from the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka en route to Dubai, the Dhaka Tribune reported, when a passenger began behaving suspiciously and appeared to want to hijack the plane.
The pilot was forced to make an emergency landing at Shah Amanat International Airport in Bangladesh’s second-largest city of Chattogram at around 5:40 p.m. local time Sunday.
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All 142 passengers and most crew members disembarked while the suspect remained on board with one crew member that he took hostage, officials said.
A Bangladeshi official told Dubai newspaper Gulf News that the suspect may have been psychologically distressed.
Officials later revealed that the purported hijacker told the pilot he had a personal issue with his wife and wanted to speak to Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
He was gunned down when commandos stormed the Boeing 737 aircraft.
The man appeared to have a pistol and explosives around his body, although it wasn’t immediately clear if they were real. He was likely Bangladeshi because he was speaking Bengali, officials said.
Authorities didn’t reveal whether any passengers, crew members or the hostage suffered injuries.
— With files from Reuters