Hijacked plane takes off HAVANA. Cuba (AP) =97 A Cuban plane hijacked by a man claiming to have two= =20 grenades and demanding to go to the United States took off Tuesday after a= =20 group of passengers safely left the craft following a tense night of=20 negotiations. The Soviet-made AN-24 biplane took off from Jose Marti=20 International Airport about 10:45 a.m. ET for an unknown destination,=20 apparently with the hijacker still aboard. Shortly before the plane took=20 off, two white cars drove onto the tarmac and a man aboard one handed three= =20 large plastic bags filled with unknown contents to someone inside the=20 plane. More than a dozen passengers aboard the Cuban Airlines flight left= =20 the aircraft after a night of negotiations. Some of those leaving the plane= =20 appeared to be children. The passengers, including a woman carrying a=20 small child, started leaving the plane shortly after 9 a.m. ET, jumping=20 from the open back hatch of the craft into the arms of emergency workers=20 below. A bus pulled up near the plane to take away at least 15 people,=20 including some who appeared to be children. Cuban authorities originally=20 reported six children among the 46 people aboard the hijacked craft. It=20 was not immediately clear what led to the passengers' release almost 12=20 hours after a man claiming to be armed with grenades demanded to be flown=20 to Florida. The plane was hijacked late Monday on a flight from Cuba's small Isle of=20 Youth to Havana but was forced to land in the capital because it lacked=20 sufficient fuel to make it to the United States, Cuban authorities=20 said. Shortly after daybreak, a tank with a hose was rolled out onto the=20 tarmac and appeared to be refueling the craft. The plane was surrounded by= =20 several dozen uniformed police officers, and two fire trucks and numerous=20 ambulances were parked nearby. It would be extremely difficult for an=20 average citizen to get access to grenades in communist-run Cuba, where such= =20 weapons are heavily guarded by the military. It was also unclear how anyone would get a pair of grenades through the=20 heavy security checks at Cuba's airports, especially less than two weeks=20 after a successful hijacking on the same route of a passenger plane to the= =20 United States. All air traffic at Havana's Jose Marti International=20 Airport appeared suspended during the negotiations. An Iberia Airlines=20 flight to Madrid was grounded and photographers and cameramen at the scene= =20 said that they had seen no takeoffs or landings for several hours. A government statement said the plane was on a regular passenger flight=20 from the Isle of Youth's main city of Nueva Gerona when the pilot reported= =20 that the craft was being hijacked to the United States by a man armed with= =20 grenades. "The Cuban authorities, for their part, will undertake the=20 maximum effort to find a solution that preserves the safety and lives of=20 passengers and crew members," said the statement. The statement blamed the hijacking attempt on what Havana says is the lax=20 treatment that six other suspected hijackers received last month after=20 successfully forcing another plane from Cuba to Key West, Fla., at=20 knifepoint. The suspects in the earlier successful hijack were charged=20 with conspiracy to seize an aircraft by force and violence and face a=20 minimum of up to 20 years in federal prison. They were granted bond, but=20 remain behind bars because they have been unable to come up with the=20 money. Cuban authorities were pleased that American officials decided to=20 charge the six but were enraged last week when a federal judge decided to=20 set bond over the objections of prosecutors. "The entire responsibility of= =20 what could happen (in the latest hijack attempt) will fall on the=20 government of that country," the Cuban statement said of the United=20 States. In the March 19 hijacking, six crew members and 25 passengers were= =20 on a twin-engine Douglas DC-3 on the same route when knife-wielding=20 hijackers took control of the plane as it descended toward Havana after a=20 trip from the Isle of Youth. They diverted the plane to Key West. Sixteen= =20 of those aboard later opted to return to Cuba and the only non-Cuban on the= =20 flight, an Italian, was released in the United States. The rest of the=20 passengers and crew members on that earlier flight opted to stay in the=20 United States under a U.S. immigration policy that allows Cubans who reach= =20 American soil to stay and seek legal residency after a year. *************************************************** 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.ttsailing.org/ TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************