Cuban airliner lands in Fla. under military escort KEY WEST, Fla. (AP) =97 A Cuban airliner carrying 29 passengers was hijacked= =20 at knifepoint Wednesday night and landed under U.S. military escort in Key= =20 West, U.S. authorities said. Six hijackers took over the plane and=20 surrendered to authorities in Key West, said FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela= =20 in Miami. They will face federal hijacking charges, she said. There were=20 no immediate reports of injuries among the hijackers, passengers or six=20 crew members. Five of the passengers were minors, an airport spokesman=20 said. It was not immediately known what motivated the hijackers. Nor was=20 their destination clear. The plane departed from Cuba and air traffic=20 controllers at Miami International Airport spotted it on radar about 7:45=20 p.m. They were unable to make voice contact, said FAA spokeswoman Kathleen= =20 Bergen. Air Force fighter jets were sent from Homestead Air Force Base and= =20 escorted the Douglas DC-3 to Key West, Bergen said. An airport worker said= =20 he saw the plane land about 8:20 p.m. "It was followed by three or four U.S. Navy jets. The plane sat on the=20 runway for about 15 minutes before the doors finally opened," Robert=20 Accerra said. The hijackers surrendered to airport police on the tarmac, said Peter=20 Horton, manager at Key West International Airport. Passengers were brought= =20 into the airport within a half hour. The alleged hijackers were in FBI=20 custody and the passengers were being interviewed by U.S. Customs agents,=20 said sheriff's spokeswoman Becky Herrin. "The hijackers were separated=20 fairly quickly from the passengers and crew. Everyone's OK," she said. The= =20 plane took off from Nueva Gerona =97 the principal city on the small Isle of= =20 Youth, about 185 miles southwest of Key West =97 on a scheduled flight to=20 Havana, according to Leonardo Pena, a Cuban civil aviation official. But=20 the aircraft flew past the capital and across the Florida Straits. Pena=20 did not know who owned the plane, but Florida officials said it was owned=20 by a company called Aerotaxi. State-owned Cubana Airlines provides=20 passenger service between Nueva Gerona and Havana, but it uses Soviet-era=20 Antonov AN-24 planes. The hijacking follows strained relations between the= =20 United States and the Communist-run island. Late Tuesday, the communist=20 government announced the detentions of several dozen opponents and said=20 U.S. diplomats may no longer move freely around the island. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Site of the Week: http://www.thehummingbirdonline.com TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************