Unarmed Soviet Airplane Hijacker Surrenders in Bulgaria

A hijacker who threatened to blow up a Soviet airplane carrying 151 passengers and eight crew on a domestic flight surrendered today after the plane made an emergency landing in the Bulgarian city of Burgas.

An official reached by telephone from Sofia said the hijacker was unarmed when he gave up to authorities and that all aboard, including five children, were reported safe after negotiations by Deputy Interior Minister Krasimir Sandzhiev.

The pilot of the TU-154 plane landed at Burgas because he was short on fuel after Turkey denied him permission to land at Istanbul’s Ataturk International Airport, said the official.

Tass news agency said the hijacker threatened to blow up the plane shortly after takeoff if he was not taken to Turkey.

Several Soviet internal flights have been hijacked the last year by young people desperate to escape their country.

The Bulgarian office of the Soviet airline Aeroflot identified the hijacker as Gennadi Y. Gannemets from the southern Russian port of Novorossiysk. He was described as a repeat offender recently released from jail, the Bulgarian news agency BTA reported.

The spokesman in the Aeroflot office was quoted as saying the hijacker was in possession of a package with unknown contents and threatened to blow up the plane unless it landed in Istanbul.