An Air China plane, with the flight number CA 1343, had to disrupt its regular flight Monday morning from Beijing to southern China's Changsha City, and made an emergency landing in Zhengzhou City due to hijack threat from a male passenger aged 32.

The news was provided by the General Administration of Civil Aviation. The man, walking toward the fore compartment at 9:35 AM Monday, claimed he wanted to hijack the plane to the Republic of Korea.

The plane made an emergency landing at 9:50 AM at the Zhengzhou airport in central China's Henan Province.

Local policemen took the man away from the airplane. Examinations showed the man, with record of mental diseases, had not brought any dangerous equipment. The plane has continued its flight to Changsha, according to the General Administration of Civil Aviation.

Plane Hijacker Arrested in Central China

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 PM 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 AM,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 AM.

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.

(Xinhua News Agency July 27, 2004)