A Turkish passenger plane flying from Tirana to Istanbul reportedly transmitted a coded hijack signal while in Greek air space.
Updated at midnight
BRINDISI (Italy): The two hijackers of the Turkish Airlines flight that was forced to land in Italy on Tuesday have surrendered and will ask for political asylum, an Italian police official said.
“They have surrendered and are about to get off the airplane,” Brindisi Police Chief Salvatore De Paolis said.
“They will request political asylum.”
Miss India Kanksha Mehta, a contestant in an Albanian international beauty contest, was on board the hijacked flight.
The Turkish plane with 150 passengers and six crew aboard was hijacked while flying over Greece, en route from Albanian capital Tirana to Istanbul.
The passenger plane transmitted a coded hijack signal while in Greek air space, a Greek defence ministry official had said on Tuesday.
"The plane sent the signal twice while in Greek air space. Four Greek fighter jets took off and accompanied the plane as it left Greek air space towards the Italian city of Brindisi," the official said.
CNN Turk later reported that the plane had landed at Brindisi airport in Italy.
Turkish TV, quoting police sources, said the plane was hijacked in protest at Pope Benedict XVI's planned visit to Turkey.
“The passengers are not under any threat. They will surrender, they declared that they will surrender the moment they hijacked the plane. No one is hurt,” Candan Karlitekin, chairman of Turkish Airlines' board of directors, said.
According to Turkey's NTV, two Turks had hijacked the plane.
The hijackers want Italian authorities to deliver a message to Pope Benedict, Italy's civil aviation authority said.
"As far as we know, the hijackers wanted to talk with Italian authorities to send a message to the Pope, a spokeswoman for ENAC said.
The hijackers were "not aggressive" and seemed "willing" to release more than 100 passengers, the deputy director of Italian civil aviation told Italian news channel Sky TV 24.
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