Hijacker had tried to flee

Press, 25 August 1981, Page 8

Hijacker had tried to flee

NZPA-Reuter West Berlin

A man who hijacked a Polish airliner to West Berlin at the week-end told the police yesterday he had been banned from leaving Poland after a previous unsuccessful attempt to flee to the west. Jerzy Dygas, a 25-year-old Warsaw messenger, brandished a rusty, defused World War II hand-grenade at the pilot on- the Lot Airlines domestic flight from Wroclaw to Warsaw and forced him to land the Soviet-built Antonov 24 plane at the American military airfield in West Berlin.

Dygas was remanded in custody by a West Berlin magistrate yesterday on charges of air piracy. This charge normally carries a minimum five-year prison term but only a minimum of one year if a court decides there were mitigating circumstances.

Dygas told the police he worked as a messenger for the Solidarity newspaper. Two of the passengers, a 19-year-old plumber and a 22-year-old car mechanic, took advantage of the hijacking to' request political asylum in West Berlin. The remaining passengers and crew went back. It was the third time a Lot aircraft had been hijacked to West Berlin in the last nine months.

United States military officials handed the previous hijacker over to West Berlin authorities despite a Polish request for. his extradition.