El Al passengers safe after hijack attempt

Security guards on El Al, Israel's national airline, overpowered a man who tried to hijack a flight from Tel Aviv to Istanbul last night.

None of the 170 passengers on board was harmed and the plane landed safely, Israel Radio reported.

An official at Istanbul's Ataturk airport confirmed that the El Al flight 581 had sent out a hijacking signal at about 9.30pm (7.30pm GMT) as it approached Istanbul but said the suspect had been overpowered. "The terrorist is in custody ... at the airport," Oktay Cakirlar said.

Turkey's commercial CNN-Turk and NTV television stations quoted police sources as saying that the alleged hijacker was an Israeli-Arab and was armed with a knife. The reports said the man was wrestled to the ground by two Israeli security guards. He had threatened a flight attendant with a knife and then tried to approach the cockpit.

Security guards "threw him to the floor with his legs spread and his face to the floor. The passengers were hysterical but the flight attendants were very cool," the Turkish official said. The man was being interrogated by police at Istanbul airport, the reports said.

El Al is viewed as the best-protected airline in the world, and one of the most threatened. From the late 1960s into the 1980s, its passengers were subjected to shooting, hijacking and bombing attempts.

El Al's security includes armed guards at check-in, on-board marshals and extensive luggage searches. Passengers are told to arrive three hours before flights to allow enough time for security checks.