Sabiha Gokcen Airport of Istanbul after faile
Sabiha Gokcen Airport of Istanbul after faileReuters

An Istanbul court on Sunday charged a Ukrainian man over his failed attempt to force a Turkish airliner to land in Sochi where the Winter Olympics opening ceremony was underway, AFP reported.

The man had been placed in provisional detention, but the charge against the 45-year-old Ukrainian identified in Turkish media as Artem Kozlov was not specified.

The crime of hijacking an aircraft carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison in Turkey, noted AFP.

Anti-terrorist police interrogated the suspect who was taken into custody on Friday, after two Turkish F-16 jets forced the airliner down at Istanbul's Sabiha Gokcen airport

The man was said to have railed against Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovych and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, accusing them of having their hands "drenched in blood."

He demanded the Istanbul-bound Boeing 737 jet be flown to Sochi where Yanukovych was holding crisis talks with Putin on the sidelines of the Games' opening ceremony.

The would-be hijacker - reported by one official in Kiev as being "in an advanced state of drunkenness" - brandished what he said was a detonator as he tried gaining access to the cockpit. He was later found to be carrying no weapons or explosives.

The plane, operated by Turkey's Pegasus Airlines, left from the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv with 110 people on board.

The crew tied the man up with rope after tricking him into believing they were headed for Sochi.

Ukraine has launched its own terror probe into the incident.

Kiev has been rocked by over two months of massive and often violent protests since Yanukovych ditched an historic EU trade and political pact in favor of closer ties with its former Soviet master Moscow.

Security around the Olympic Games has been a major issue, following two deadly December suicide attacks in the southern Russian city of Volgograd.

The first bombing, on December 29, took place at a train station in the city, killing 18 people. A day later, a suicide bombing on a trolleybus in the same city killed another 16 people.

Terrorists believed to be involved in the Volgograd bombings have threatened to attack the Olympics.

The United States warned American and foreign airlines last week that terrorists could try to place explosives disguised as toothpaste on Russia-bound flights.