Mexican media reports on hijacked airliner

The Mexican military has taken control of the Aeroméxico flight hijacked earlier today, and none of the passengers or flight crew were harmed, according to Mexican and Latin America media. Aeroméxico flight 576 took off near midday from Cancún bound for Mexico City with 104 people on board. The plane was hijacked at some point after boarding in Cancún, the beach resort on the Yucatán Peninsula.

Telesur TV, the Venezuela-based news network,  says the Mexican military stormed the plane on a runway in Mexico City’s international airport, minutes after hijackers freed the passengers. This left only part of the flight staff on board. EFE, the Spanish news agency, says the soldiers were able to detain the hijackers without any of the flight crew being harmed.

Telesur, at 3:35 Eastern time, reported that at least 5 presumed hijackers were detained by the Mexican military.

Telesur correspondent Aissa García interviewed airline passenger Adriana Romero, who said she didn’t know the plane had been hijacked until she saw it surrounded by military personnel on the runway in Mexico City. EFE said the passengers were only inside the plane, once it was on the ground in Mexico City, for 45 minutes.

The hijackers had wanted the plane to circle above Mexico City, but since it was low on gas, allowed it to land at Mexico City’s international airport, according to various reports.

The hijackers threatened to blow up the plane if  President Felipe Calderón didn’t speak to them personally. According to the AP, Mexico Communications Secretary Juan Molinar confirmed the incident as a hijacking.

According to El Universal, the hijackers weren’t able to access the sealed pilot’s cabin.

La Jornada, citing radio reports, posted a breaking news report earlier in the afternoon saying the hijackers showed passengers a package wrapped in cinnamon-colored tape and cables, and said they would blow the plane up if they weren’t allowed to speak to President Calderón.

The Reforma news group reported the hijackers were “apparently of Bolivian origin.”

According to the website flightstats flight 576, which took off from Cancún at 11:40 AM, was scheduled to arrive at 1:50 PM in Mexico City (or 2:50 PM Eastern time).

In early dispatches, Spanish news agency EFE cited Formato 21, a local radio news show, which had a reporter on the scene: “There are three hijackers, apparently one of them has declared himself to be Bolivian in origin,” the Formato 21 reporter was quoted as saying by EFE.

Note:

It appears this incident has been resolved to some degree, so I’ll close this post, which I have been trying to update with the latest on the incident. It will be interesting to see how much of the reporting– the number of hijackers, the supposed “Bolivian connection,” and the story about the cinnamon-colored tape– turns out to be true.