Many passengers unaware of hijacking until plane landed in London

BAGHDAD, Iraq - They had been in the air only two hours when first class passengers noticed a flight attendant emerge from the cockpit with tears in her eyes. Passengers became more concerned when the ''fasten seat belts'' warning light failed to go off and the monitor tracking their flight went blank.

London-bound Saudi Arabian Airlines Flight 115 had been hijacked.

But passengers weren't told this while they were in the air, and the crew remained so calm that some passengers learned of it only after the plane landed in Baghdad late Saturday after a 7-hour odyssey that began in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia.

''I first thought we landed at Heathrow in London. But when I looked through the window I said to myself, 'This is not London,''' said Iqbal Dawood from Pakistan, one of the 103 passengers and crew on the flight.

Half an hour after landing, the captain announced to passengers that the plane had been hijacked and that negotiations were under way.

The two hijacking suspects surrendered without incident in Baghdad.

Passengers and crew from Flight 115 spent the night in Baghdad, then boarded their plane - some running in joy across the tarmac to the Boeing 777 - to leave Sunday evening. A few hours later, the plane landed at Riyadh airport in Saudi Arabia. Some passengers were to continue on to London on another flight.

The suspects, identified by Saudi Arabian officials as Faisal al-Biloowi and Ayish al-Faridi, told reporters they hijacked the plane to demand rights for the Saudi people.

''We want to choose our own leaders. The time of kings and monarchies is over,'' al-Faridi said.

The men also complained about human rights abuses, corruption and unemployment.

''Saudi people cannot find work and they bring foreigners in to protect us. We can protect ourselves,'' said al-Faridi half his face hidden behind a scarf.

Saudi officials said on condition of anonymity that al-Biloowi was an undercover security officer at the Jiddah airport and al-Faridi was a border guard.

The hijacking took place at a time when anti-U.S. sentiment is running high in a region wracked by bloody Israeli-Palestinian clashes. Many Arabs believe the United States favors Israel, but the Saudi government is a close U.S. ally and has allowed U.S. troop bases on its territory since the Gulf War.

It wasn't immediately clear whether the hijackers were armed or how they seized control of the aircraft. One of the hijackers at one point threatened to blow up the plane unless it was allowed to fly to Baghdad, Saudi officials said.

Taher Haboush, the Iraqi official who led negotiations with the hijackers, said the men asked for political asylum. But they denied requesting asylum and said they would eventually like to leave Iraq.

Saudi Arabia will demand their immediate extradition, Saudi Arabia's Deputy Interior Minister Prince Ahmed said Sunday. Hijacking carries the death penalty in Saudi Arabia.

It is unclear whether Iraq will heed the Saudi demand. The countries have had no relations since Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait in 1990, but a pre-Gulf War treaty provides for extradition.

The passengers included 40 Britons, 15 Saudis, 15 Pakistanis, four Yemenis, four South Africans, two Kenyans, and one each from France, India, Lebanon, Nigeria, Oman, the Palestinian territories, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States, airline officials said.

Among them was Saudi Prince Bandar bin Mohammed bin Saad bin Abdul-Rahman, a 19-year-old cousin of King Fahd who was on his way to London to study English.

It was the second hijacking in the Gulf in a month.

On Sept. 14, an Iraqi man armed with a knife hijacked a Qatar Airways plane en route to Jordan and ordered it flown to Saudi Arabia.

All 144 passengers and crew escaped unharmed when the man surrendered in the Saudi city of Hael.