Putin ordered downing of 'bomb-threat' plane during Sochi Games

The caller told the Russian President that passengers on a plane heading from Ukraine to Turkey had hijacked it, claiming they had a bomb on board.

Russian President Vladimir Putin

Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin has revealed that he ordered the downing of a "hijacked" plane that threatened 40,000 spectators who came to witness the opening ceremony of the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games, the media reported. The President made the revelations on Sunday in a two-hour documentary film titled "Putin" directed by Andrey Kondrashov, a state television filmmaker, which was shared on local social media on Sunday, reports RT news. Putin recalled that on February 7, 2014, just as he was setting off for Sochi's Fisht Stadium, where the spectators, thousands of sportspersons and dozens of world leaders awaited the start of the ceremony, he had received a call from the official responsible for the safety of the Olympics. The caller told the Russian President that passengers on a plane heading from Ukraine to Turkey had hijacked it, claiming they had a bomb on board and demanded that their flight be diverted to Sochi. The hijackers stated no other conditions. According to FSB chief Aleksandr Bortnikov, also interviewed for the film, fighter jets were immediately scrambled, but the final decision was to be taken by Putin, RT news reported. Putin asked the security official: "What do you suggest we do?" "The answer was as expected: ‘Follow the plan. Shoot down the aircraft'. I said to them, ‘Then act in accordance with your plan'," Putin told Kondrashov. Finally, a second call came. "The same official. He tells me that this was drunken antics from the passengers. And that the plane would soon land in Istanbul as expected," RT quoted Putin as saying in the documentary. When asked by his interviewer what he experienced between the two phone calls, Putin replied that "this is something I would prefer not to talk about". In the documentary, Putin also said that returning Crimea to Ukraine was impossible under whatever circumstances, reports TASS news agency. "What are you talking about? Such circumstances do not exist and never will," he asserted.