Hijacker thwarted on Alitalia Paris to Rome flight AZ 329

A man identified by Italian police as Valery Tolmachev, 48, allegedly attempted to hijack an Alitalia flight today. Alitalia flight AZ 329, an Airbus A321 marketed as an Air France codeshare AF9842,  left Paris at 8:24pm local time bound for Rome.

Some time during the flight, the man reportedly attacked a flight attendant with either a small knife or nail clippers by grabbing her from behind and demanded the plane divert to the Libyan capital, Tripoli.

Four crew members and passengers subdued him and apparently a doctor, who was also on flight AZ329, administered a sedative to Tolmachev.

All 131 people on board arrived at Rome’s Fiumicino airport safely at 2005 GMT and he was taken into custody by Italian police.

Reportedly, Tolmachev, is a member of the Kazakh delegation of Unesco in Paris.

Alitalia Statement:

“A passenger in an evident state of agitation assaulted a flight attendant, demanding that the flight be diverted to Tripoli. Thanks to the swift intervention of the other flight attendants the attacker was restrained in his seat and the flight continued towards Rome Fiumicino where it landed normally at 21.55.”