Both Surrender To Authorities In Colombia

A bizarre hijacking ended peacefully Monday when a disabled man in a wheelchair and his son surrendered to authorities in Colombia and released their 24 hostages. Some passengers later said the elder man wasn't searched by security forces precisely because he was wheelchair-bound.

It began at about 1115 Monday morning when police said the two men boarded an Aires Airlines twin turboprop departing the Colombian city of Florencia. The two men, identified as 42-year old Porfirio Ram�rez Aldana and his son, 23-year old Businhauser Ram�rez, commandeered the aircraft, saying they were armed with hand grenades. Passengers said they never saw any weapons.

The aircraft landed in Bogota at 1235. Immediately, police said, the father and son released all women and children on the flight -- including a two-month old baby.

After demanding to speak with a priest, two congressmen and a representative of Colombia's attorney general's office, the two men released the remaining passengers and surrendered, police said.

What set the father-son team off? Apparently, the older man had lost a lawsuit. Authorities told the Miami Herald he had sued after being caught in a the crossfire of a police shootout and being permanently disabled as a result.

"This is a personal problem of a man who doesn't think that the justice system treated him well," Colombian presidential spokesman Ricardo Gal�n
told the Herald. "The two men have repeated that they don't belong to any armed group."

FMI: www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/co.html