'Hijack' Attempt Foiled (Qatar Airways)
When it rains, it pours....
'Hijack' Attempt Foiled
Updated: 16:59, Thursday August 10, 2006
A man has been overpowered by airline staff after trying to enter the cockpit of a Qatar Airways plane.
He was carrying a cannister of liquid in what could have been a hijack attempt.
Security officials said they did not know what was in the container.
"Just after takeoff, one of the passengers moved towards the cockpit and, when one of the flight attendants stood in his way, he hit him (the attendant)," passenger Samir Samri told the Al Jazeera TV network by telephone.
He said the man appeared to be about 20 and from an African country.
"It might not have been a hijack attempt ... he might have been mentally unstable," he said.
The flight was heading to the Qatari capital Doha from Jordan's capital, Amman, but turned back after the incident.
The man was eventually detained by Jordanian officials.
The incident came hours after the UK said it had foiled a major terror plot to blow up airplanes headed to the US.