Mogadishu --
That was close. Only thanks to the prudent actions of a Russian pilot and his engineer, two German journalists in Somalia have escaped a kidnapping.
The machine with about 30 passengers was from Puntland, a sub-state in northern Somalia, on the road to Djibouti. On board also John Dieterich (Frankfurter Rundschau) and Arne Perras ( "Süddeutsche Zeitung").
"It takes two, maybe three minutes, then suddenly a man jumps up in the front row," says Perras (42) later to his office. The man yells at Somali that he is concerned only about the Germans. He pulls a gun. This will open the door of the cockpit.
The flight engineer, looking out. There is a scramble, the engineer can close the door, they lock. The kidnappers fired two shots at the cockpit door. But that is made of steel.
"It's as if someone tied me with violence to the chest."
In the 10th Series crouches Dieterich (52). He thinks of his family in Johannesburg (South Africa): "Tomorrow is my son's twelfth birthday, and my 7-year-old daughter still needs me."
The kidnappers demand that the machine is in a small town, about 15 minutes flight from the departure airport in Bosaso (Puntland) from land. But the pilot is from radio messages, which controls the machine back to the departure airport. Once he has to take off. The hijacker had wild shot at the cockpit door.
"It is the moment where I think: He shot the pilot, we crash," says Perras.
But the second successful landing. It waits a police force already on the kidnappers. One of the perpetrators will be taken on the leg. "My third life begins," says Dieterich. "The second began 17 years ago after a plane crash in Angola."
