Two Russian men, both pilots, were taken into custody on Wednesday at Berlin’s Tegel Airport after a witness told police she suspected they were planning a hijacking, authorities said.
The two men, aged 49 and 26, were booked on an Air Berlin flight to Moscow around midday, federal police spokeswoman Sandra Pfeifer said. Though they were both registered pilots, neither was part of the aircraft’s crew, she said.
Overheard
They were overheard speaking in Russian by a woman at an Air Berlin counter before they boarded the plane, Berlin police spokesman Michael Gassen said.
“She had the impression that a hijacking of the plane to Moscow was planned,” he said without elaborating.
Pfeifer confirmed that the two men were taken into custody after a conversation was reported, but would also not say specifically what the two men are alleged to have said.
The two were taken into custody by federal police, Pfeifer said.
Checks
They had gone through security checks already by the time they were apprehended and were not armed, she said.
Both have been turned over to Berlin police for questioning.
The plane was evacuated and its 135 passengers were all questioned. Most were able to take a later flight to Moscow, police said.
Hans-Christoph Noack, a spokesman for Air Berlin, confirmed that two men, who were licensed pilots, had been arrested.
Noack said Air Berlin was cooperating with authorities’ investigation.
He was unable to give any further details regarding the witness.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing