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Suspected hijackers of plane in Siberian Tyumen detained outside Moscow

The two men, residents of Moscow and the Moscow region, may face from four to eight years in prison for illegally seizing a plane on the aerodrome in Ishim, Siberia

MOSCOW, June 23. /TASS/. Two men suspected of hijacking a plane from an aerodrome outside the Siberian city of Tyumen have been detained outside Moscow, the Russian Investigative Committee reports.

According to the Investigative Committee, in the early hours of Sunday the two men, residents of Moscow and the Moscow region, illegally seized a plane on the aerodrome in Ishim, belonging to DOSAAF (Volunteer Society for Cooperation with the Army, Aviation, and Fleet) aviation and sports club, and flew away.

Criminal proceedings have been launched in connection with the hijacking, for which the suspects may face from four to eight years in prison.

Earlier reports said two private planes — Gardan GY-80-160 and Yak-52 — took off without permission from an aerodrome in Ishim, a town in the Tyumen region, on Sunday. A Yak-52 pilot later made emergency landing at an airdrome belonging to in the town of Yalutorovsk, Tyumen region, hitting engineering structures. The Yak-52 pilot then boarded the Gardan GY-80-160 plane which flew in an unknown direction.

According to a law enforcement source, the men were heading towards Moscow (possibly via Perm, a city near the Ural Mountains). Later police established their whereabouts.

The two suspects will be handed over to the Investigative Committee’s Urals investigative department for transport, where preliminary investigation was launched and where they will be questioned and the decision will be made on pretrial detention.