Turkish hijacker Ekinci had done internet research on airplanes
Güncelleme Tarihi:
With more and more details emerging about the hijacking incident which took place Tuesday on a Turkish Airlines flight from Tirana to Istanbul, it has become clear that Turkish hijacker Hakan Ekinci was very well prepared beforehand for the event. Making a statement to the press yesterday about how Ekinci was able to gain entry into the cockpit of the airplane, Pilot Mursel Gokalp said he thought Ekinci had done ample research on the internet, noting "He knew that there was a code needed. He had even trained himself enough to know whether the head of the airplane was going east or west."
In a statement to police in Italy following his departure from the airplane, Ekinci said this:
"If there had been more Turks sitting in the front, I never would have done it"
"When I got on the plane, I saw that most of the passengers were Albanian. I saw only a few Turks. The Turks were all sitting separately from one another. If there had been 10-15 Turks sitting towards the front, I would have never attempted the hijacking. Because Turks are crazy...they would have immediatly brought me down."
Hakan Ekinci remains currently in Italy, where his immediate extradition to Turkey looks unlikely, as he is asking for political asylum, and as the Turkish Airlines flight was forced to land on Italian soil. In the meantime, Ekinci has told Italian authorities that he converted to Christianity, and that he fears for his life as a Christian in Turkey, a fact which looks likely to complicate matters even more for the legal procedure. Interestingly, Ekinci had a wide portfolio of recorded criminal activity in Turkey before this week's airplane hijacking.