US: A Cuban passenger aircraft hijacked by a man who threatened to explode a hand grenade landed safely in Florida yesterday, and the suspected hijacker was taken into police custody, US authorities said.
The twin-propellor aircraft, with 31 people aboard, landed shortly after 11:34 a.m. EST (1634 GMT) at Key West International Airport, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman, Mr Christopher White, said.
It was the second hijacking in two weeks of a Cuban airliner by Cubans seeking to leave their communist-run island for the United States.
The suspected hijacker carried a small boy who appeared to be a relative off the aircraft, set him down and was taken into custody, a Key West police spokesman, Mr Steve Torrence, said.
Uniformed US officials surrounded the Cubana Airlines Antonov 24 as police snipers aimed guns at the aircraft.
Passengers filed out with their hands in the air. The male passengers slowly lifted their shirts to show they were not hiding weapons, then lay down on the tarmac.
Within an hour of landing, all were off the aircraft and were to be interviewed by federal investigators, Mr Torrence said.
The North American Aerospace Defence Command, known as NORAD, scrambled two F-16 fighter jets from a south Florida air reserve base to escort the aircraft, a spokesman said. Key West is just 90 miles (145 km) north of Cuba.
The Cuban government said the aircraft originally had 46 passengers and crew when it was hijacked on a domestic flight from the Isle of Youth to Havana on Monday night by a man apparently armed with two grenades.
The hijacker threatened to explode a grenade unless he was flown across the Florida Straits, but the aircraft did not have enough fuel for the trip and landed at Havana's international airport, a Cuban government statement said.
After a 12-hour stand-off that closed the Havana airport to all flights, the hijacker allowed some passengers, including children, to disembark. The aircraft was refuelled and left Havana just before 11 a.m. EST (1600 GMT) for Key West.
The hijacking came less than two weeks after a group of six Cubans hijacked a Douglas DC-3 at knifepoint with 31 other people on board and forced the pilot to fly to Key West. That aircraft was still sitting at the Key West airport when the second one landed nearby yesterday.
Havana says the United States encourages Cubans to leave the island illegally with its policy of granting emigrés residence in the United States if they make it to land.
US authorities said Cubans risk such journeys in order to escape repression.
The six hijackers of the DC-3 seized in March sought asylum in the United States but instead were arrested and charged with conspiracy to seize an aircraft by force.
Most of the crew and passengers were returned to Cuba, although some chose to stay in the United States under a US law that allows Cubans who reach American soil to remain in the country and seek legal residency after a year.
Cuban authorities said more than 50 aircraft have been hijacked and flown to the United States since 1959. - (Reuters)