A Cuban airliner hijacked by a man who threatened to explode a hand grenade landed safely in Florida this evening with a suspect taken into police custody.
The plane, with 31 people aboard, was escorted into Key West shortly before noon (6 p.m. Irish time) by US military jets after being hijacked last night during a Cuban domestic flight and spending the night at Havana airport.
The hijacking is the second in two weeks of a Cuban airliner by Cubans seeking to leave island for the United States.
In Key West, uniformed US officials surrounded the Cubana Airlines twin-prop Antonov 24 as police snipers aimed guns at the aircraft. Passengers and crew filed out the back door, many with their hands in the air. Male passengers lifted their shirts to show they were not armed, then lay on the tarmac.
Among them was the suspected hijacker, wearing a red jacket with "America" stitched on it. He carried a small boy to the bottom of the aircraft's stairs before being taken into custody, Key West police spokesman Mr Steve Torrence said.
"It looked like they were family. When he let the little boy down on the tarmac the little boy grabbed his leg," Mr Torrence said.
Sheriff's deputies removed what appeared to be two hand grenades from the suspect's pockets before turning him over to the FBI, Mr Torrence said.