Vnukovo Airlines Flight 2806

Vnukovo Airlines Flight 2806 was an act of terrorism carried out by three Chechens from March 15 to March 16, 2001. During the incident, a Tu-154M airliner of Vnukovo Airlines performing flight VKO-2806 from Istanbul to Moscow was hijacked. The hijacked plane landed at Prince Mohammad bin Abdulaziz International Airport in Medina, Saudi Arabia. The aircraft was freed following a special forces operation by Saudi Arabia. Three people were killed — one passenger, a flight attendant, and the terrorist leader. It would be the final hijacking where the hijackers did not plan to kill themselves prior to the September 11 attacks.

Hijacking

On March 15, 2001, a Tu-154M aircraft with tail number RA-85619 operated by Vnukovo Airlines performed charter flight VKO-2806 from Istanbul to Moscow on behalf of the travel company "Pan-Ukraine". At 14:57 Moscow time, the aircraft took off from Istanbul Atatürk International Airport. On board were 164 (according to other sources, 162) passengers (including 98 Russian nationals) and 12 crew members. A few minutes after takeoff, while the airliner was still gaining altitude, the two Arsaevs, who were seated in row 7, got up from their seats and headed towards the cockpit. Flight attendants Khromov and Dmitriev, whom the hijackers asked to convey their demands to the crew, attempted to resist. As a result, Supyan Arsaev stabbed Khromov in the abdomen with a stiletto, while Dmitriev managed to escape to the cockpit and warn the flight crew of the danger. The cockpit door lock was faulty, so to prevent the terrorists from breaking in, the crew members in the cockpit took turns holding the door handle manually for the next 22 hours.

The terrorists ordered the passengers to stay in their seats and not resist, threatening to detonate a bomb, the dummy fuse of which was in the hands of Iriskhan Arsaev. They announced that the bomb was with a fourth terrorist, who was supposedly among the passengers, but in reality, either did not exist or did not reveal themselves until the end of the hijacking operation. The hijackers broke into the aircraft's fire extinguisher compartment and armed themselves with two small axes from the inventory. They also took knives from the galley. The hijackers contacted the pilots via intercom and demanded access to the cockpit. The crew sent a distress signal and attempted to return for an emergency landing in Istanbul, descending to 400 m, however, the landing approach was unsuccessful because the hijackers noticed the maneuver and threatened to blow up the plane. Later, Arsaev demanded the plane be redirected to Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates.