By RIA Novosti,
St. Petersburg : A plane flying from the Turkish resort town of Antalya landed safely in St. Petersburg Wednesday after a terror scare, in which a drunk passenger threatened to blow up the plane, authorities said.
A spokesman for Russia’s northwest transport prosecutor’s office said: “An operational headquarters is being set up at the airport, as is customary in such cases.”
The Airbus A-320 owned by Turkish airline THY was carrying 167 passengers.
Turkish aviation authorities said a Russian man who had been drinking heavily on the Turkish Airlines flight to Pulkovo airport had threatened to blow up the plane.
An airline spokesman told Turkey’s NTV channel the passenger had handed a note to a stewardess saying he was carrying explosives and would blow up the aircraft. He was later restrained by another passenger. The plane continued its flight.
Turkish media earlier reported that the plane had been hijacked by terrorists.