[3] In particular, a person later identified as Turkish terrorist Ertan Jushkun, who participated in the hijacking of the Russian ferry "Avrasya" in 1996, was on board.

[3] They also possibly had an explosive device disguised as a video recorder box, which someone from Istanbul airport staff brought on board.

[8] 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".

[3] A few minutes after takeoff, while the airliner was still gaining altitude, Supyan Arsaev and his son, seated in row 7, stood up 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 wounded Khromov in the abdomen with a stiletto, while Dmitriev managed to escape to the cockpit and warn the flight crew of the danger.

The terrorists ordered the passengers to stay in their seats and not resist, threatening to blow up the plane with a bomb that Iriskhan Arsaev was holding.

[8] The plane flew 2,500 km through the airspace of Turkey, Cyprus, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia in search of a suitable airport for landing.

[9] Meanwhile, not wanting to take responsibility for rescuing hostages, the authorities of Egypt, Israel, and Syria refused to allow the Russian plane to land on their territory.

The commander and navigator managed to explain that there were no other options for landing, and if the plane crashed, the responsibility would fall on the Saudi aviation authorities.

Despite threats to kill flight attendant Yulia Fomina and other hostages, the crew did not open the cockpit door.

Arsaev explained that the Russian authorities had taken everything from him due to the Second Chechen War: killed his relatives, bombed his house, and left him disabled.

[8] After food and a radio were delivered to the hijackers, they allowed 20 passengers (the sick, elderly, women, and children) to leave the plane, as well as the unconscious flight attendant Alexander Khromov.

[11] Realizing the passengers' escape, the terrorists locked all the hatches and doors, leaving only the one near the cockpit open.

Alpha Group fighters prepared to fly to Medina, but Turkey, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia did not permit the arrival of Russian special forces.

Saudi authorities guaranteed Vladimir Putin that they could handle the hostage rescue and would not let the plane leave Medina.

At night, Putin personally contacted the crew (while on a trip to Altai) and promised to do everything possible, asking them not to succumb to the terrorists' threats and not to take off.

Under continuous blows, the door began to break, leading the dispatcher to order the crew to leave the cockpit.

Barely holding the door, all five crew members managed to escape through the emergency hatch, with minor injuries to flight engineer Andrey Guselnikov and captain Nikolai Vinogradov.

[3] At this time, self-propelled ladders with special forces in black masks and bulletproof vests armed with short-barreled rifles approached the plane.

A special forces member shot Supyan Arsaev, who stood in the front vestibule, at point-blank range.

Squeezing through the crowd to the door, she opened it and was immediately wounded (a special forces soldier presumably aimed at a passenger trying to lay her down, mistaking him for a terrorist).