Hijack threat offender gets three months

DUBAI // A passenger who threatened to hijack a plane en route to Manila was jailed for three months yesterday.

AJ, 38, from Iran, was convicted in the Dubai Court of Misdemeanours of threatening, assaulting and insulting a public employee on Emirates Flight 334 on March 1.

Before the plane took off, a flight attendant asked AJ if he needed any help and he replied: "Since I will hijack the plane, no need for your help."

She informed the captain, who called airport police, and officers arrested AJ immediately. "According to procedures, if we hear alarming words like bomb or hijack, we report it right away," the flight attendant said.

AJ denied doing anything wrong. He insisted that what he said was something like, since it was not like taking a plane, he didn't need her help.

"It's a very stupid answer, I know," he told investigators.

AJ is also accused of a similar offence on another flight in June 2009, for which he is being tried separately in the Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance. A verdict in that case is expected on June 28.

amustafa@thenational.ae