A fact from 1995 Airstan Ilyushin Il-76 hijacking appeared on Wikipedia's
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Did you know... that the 1995 Airstan incident, which ended 14 years ago today with Russian hostages escaping
Taliban captivity via an
Ilyushin Il-76(pictured), was made into the 2010 Russian movie, Kandahar?
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Interesting pictures, to bad the story has been falsified. The plane was actually owned by the notorious Russian gun-runner
Viktor Bout. It was intercepted and captured that much is true, though the real issue was in the plane was full of arms destined for the Northern Alliance, not the Taliban. Thus they were reluctant to release his crew. The tale of the prisoners tricking the guards to escape is considered iffy at best. It’s been deemed much more likely Bout paid off the Taliban (the plane was full of arms already so he had to sweeten the deal) but to keep up the cover of his illegal operation and what the plane was used for, the prisoners were “allowed” to escape.
The news of their freedom prompted speculation that Talaban leaders deliberately let them go after striking a secret deal with Moscow, although a rebel spokesman described it as nothing more than a "dare devil attempt which succeeded".