Newspapers in Turkey are debating whether or not the two Atlas jet pilots should have abandoned the cockpit after their plane was hijacked. The pilots, Cemal Doğanay and Faruk Çağımnı, escaped by breaking a cockpit window and jumping to the ground shortly after the plane landed at Antalya airport to refuel. Meanwhile, the flight's 136 passengers and six crew members were being held hostage in the aircraft cabin. After the pilots left the plane, some passengers started fainting from lack of oxygen and the hijackers agreed to open the door. Passengers then began leaping out from the plane and apparently the hijackers lost control of the situation.

Some newspaper readers expressed concern that the pilots' licenses should be revoked — that their leaving the airplane to terrorists' control was an act of cowardice and betrayal. Others felt the pilots' actions was a smart counterterrorism move — one that led to the ultimate surrender of the hijackers. 

Atlas jet CEO Tuncay Doğaner told the press that the pilots abandoning the plane was "part of the plan." But that contradicts what pilot Faruk Çağımnı told English language SABAH Newspaper. 

Cağımnı stated that he was threatened that one passenger will be killed if he does not leave the plane [sic]; besides he received an instruction to leave the plane.

Çağımnı said: "I saw that the pirates [i.e. hijackers] introducing themselves as Al Qaeda were very serious. They threatened the cabin chief to throw away from the plane. They told [us] they knew how to fly a plane."

Media reports say as many as twenty commandos were on standby at the airport. 

(photo credit: SAHAH Newspaper: Atlas jet pilots Cemal Doğanay and Faruk Çağımnı)

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