All passengers and crew on a hijacked Colombian airliner were released and the two hijackers surrendered to the authorities on Monday in the capital of Bogota.

A small plane of the Colombian company Aires was hijacked on Monday during a flight from the southern Colombian city of Florencia to the southwestern city of Neiva. Twenty passengers and five crew members were aboard.

It landed at about 1:00 PM local time (18:00 GMT) at the El Dorado Airport in Bogota.

The police said the hijackers were wheelchair-bound Luis Ramirez, 42, and his 23-year-old son Linsen, who was as quoted by local media as saying they carried grenades onto the plane.

The two hijackers were arrested and are being questioned by police, said congressman German Navas.

The lawmaker told reporters at the airport that Ramirez said he decided to hijack the plane because he was angry for not receiving state compensation for his injury.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe cut short a security meeting in the northwestern city of Cali and returned to Bogota to deal with the hijacking.

(Xinhua News Agency September 13, 2005)