FILE - In this file photo taken Thursday, March 1, 2018, journalists watch as Russian President Vladimir Putin gives his annual state of the nation address in Manezh in Moscow, Russia. Buoyed by an oil boom, President Vladimir Putin's rule since 2000 has been marked by complaints about corruption and human rights abuse, tension with the West over Moscow's 2014 annexation of Crimea and accusations of meddling in U.S. elections. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)
March 12, 2018 - 4:28 AM
MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin says he approved of a plan to shoot down a hijacked passenger jet in 2014.
A Ukrainian man tried to hijack a Turkey-bound flight and demand that it go to Sochi as the Winter Olympics were about to start there. The pilot instead tricked the man, who was drunk and falsely claimed he had a bomb, and landed in Istanbul.
Putin said in a documentary that aired on state television late Sunday that the chief of domestic intelligence agency FSB had briefed him and said they were prepared to shoot down the plane with 110 passengers onboard. Putin said he had given his go-ahead in a worst-case scenario.
Putin recalled that minutes later the FSB chief called him to say it was a false alarm.
News from © The Associated Press, 2018