Hijacked Sudan plane expected at London 's Stansted .
LONDON 1996-08-27
A hijacked Sudan Airways plane with 199 passengers and crew on board was expected to land at London 's Stansted airport later on Tuesday morning , a police spokeswoman said .
" That is the plan at the moment .
That is where the plane is being directed to , " Ruth Collin of Essex police , the force responsible for Stansted , said .
Stansted , London 's third-busiest airport after Heathrow and Gatwick , is located about 30 miles ( 48 km ) northeast of the capital .
British officials said they would much prefer to deal with a hijacking at Stansted because of its relatively remote location and because air traffic would be less badly disrupted there than at Heathrow or Gatwick .
They said police and the emergency services were implementing a well-rehearsed contingency plan to handle the hijacking .
The armed hijackers of the Airbus 310 Flight 150 , which is expected to arrive about 4 a.m. ( 0300 GMT ) , have said they intend to surrender and seek political asylum in Britain .
The plane was hijacked on its way from Khartoum to the Jordanian capital Amman on Monday evening and landed at Larnaca airport in Cyprus to refuel .
The identity and number of the hijackers was not known .
One of them negotiated through the pilot in English .
The pilot said several hijackers appeared to be placed around the plane .