Passengers on the flight which was forced to land in Istanbul because of a bomb threat are beginning to speak about their ordeal.<br /><br />The suspect, believed to be a Ukrainian national, attempted to hijack the plane with 110 passengers en route from Kharkov in Ukraine to Turkey, and divert it to Sochi, where the Winter Olympics were underway.<br /><br />However, the plane landed safely at Sabiha Gokcen airport, much to the relief to those on board.<br /><br />Gokhan Yildirim, one of the freed passengers recounted the incident:<br /><br />“He said that he had bomb on him, and a friend of his would explode it remotely if he was harmed.”<br /><br />Another passenger, Mehmet Tutan, spoke of the moment they realised they weren’t in Russia.<br /><br />“We thought we had landed in Sochi. We thought so for a long time. When we found out that there was a network (connection) on our mobile phones and we were able to call out, there was no roaming, we understood that we were not in Sochi.”<br /><br />The incident comes at a time of high alert during the Sochi Olympics. Earlier this week US officials warned of the potential for ‘toothpaste’ bombs on flights.
