February 10, 2000

The hijacking of an Ariana (Afghani airline) Boeing 727 aircraft, which was seized on an internal flight and forced to fly via Central Asia to Moscow and then on to the U.K., ends peacefully at Stansted airport north of London. Four days later 72 of the passengers are flown back to Afghanistan. A similar number apply for asylum in the U.K. - a request complicated by uncertainty as to how many might have been complicit in the hijack.