Disguised special forces agents retake Russian plane

RUSSIAN special forces disguised as doctors staged a lightning strike to detain a man who had seized an aircraft on a domestic flight to Moscow's Domodedovo airport, a spokeswoman for the airport revealed yesterday.

"During the flight, an attempt was made to hijack the airplane.

"After its landing at Domodedovo airport, it was freed thanks to well-coordinated actions by the interior ministry and FSB (domestic security service)," the spokeswoman said.

"This was the fastest operation to free an airplane in Russia's civil aviation history," the spokeswoman added.

The plane was on its way to Moscow from Russia's North Caucasus spa town of Mineralnye Vody when the hijack took place.

A passenger handed a note to a member of the crew, which demanded a meeting with Russian journalists and officials, Tatyana Trunova, a spokeswoman for transport police, said.

There were 105 people on board the flight, including seven crew and five children, the prosecutor-general's investigative committee said in a statement last night.

"As a condition for freeing the hostages, he demanded that we connect him with the Russian prime minister (Vladimir Putin)," it added.

The plane was freed two hours later by special forces who boarded the plane disguised as doctors after the hijacker agreed to allow several passengers to receive medical attention.

Mineralniye Vody is in Russia's troubled North Caucasus region, which suffers daily violence attributed to separatist Islamic militants.