A passenger who attempted to hijack a plane bound to Dubai was shot dead by commandos on the hijacked plane.
The suspect, who spoke Bengali, managed to board the Biman airlines plane at Dhaka, 4:35 pm last February 24 armed with a handgun. He then attempted to force his way into the cockpit as he tried to hijack the plane – which forced an emergency landing at Chittagong airport in Bangladesh at 5:40 pm.
The plane was then surrounded by Bangladeshi special forces as the hijacker allowed all 143 passengers and seven crew members to leave the grounded plane.
Bangladesh: Tense situation as police surround a plane at Chattogram airport after it was reported to be hijacked. The Dubai bound Biman plane is identified as flight BG147. pic.twitter.com/BtessHtKyZ
— Sidhant Sibal (@sidhant) February 24, 2019
The hijacker then demanded to speak to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh and was asked by the commandos to surrender. A few shots were fired during the standoff, wounding the hijacker who died shortly afterwards, as per a report from BBC.
“We tried to arrest him or get him to surrender but he refused and then we shot him,” Maj Gen Motiur Rahman told reporters.
“He is a Bangladeshi. We found a pistol from him and nothing else,” he added.
Images posted on social media showed crowds of people on the tarmac at the airport with the Boeing 737-800 aircraft visible in the background.