I Really, Really, Don't Need This. Really.

Plane hijacker arrested in central China

ZHENGZHOU, July 26 (Xinhuanet) -- A passenger who threatened to hijack an Air China plane was arrested by Chinese police Monday morning at the airport of Zhengzhou, capital of central China's Henan Province.

The plane landed safely at around 2:35 p.m. at its destination of Changsha, capital of southern Hunan Province, with no casualties.

The hijacker Yang Jinsong, 32, is a librarian at Xiangtan University in Hunan and has a record of mental illness.

According to police investigation, Yang claimed around 10 minutes after take-off that his companions had some sulfuric acid and would throw it on other passengers unless the plane headed for the Republic of Korea.

The CA 1343 flight traveling a domestic route from Beijing to Changsha then made an emergency landing in Zhengzhou at 9:50 a.m.,according to the sources from the General Administration of Civil Aviation.

A small team was formed immediately to handle the case and two plainclothes policemen were sent to negotiate with Yang in the plane, said Liu Guoqing, senior official with the Henan police.

Yang was captured at 10:20 a.m.

The police then examined the plane and other passengers but didn't find any conspirators or sulfuric acid as Yang had claimed.

Further investigation is in progress. Enditem

My son, Kevin, is in China.  He is scheduled to depart Shanghai on 7/28/2004 for Tokyo on All Nippon Airways flight #922.