An Istanbul court has charged a Ukrainian man over his failed attempt to force a Turkish airliner to land in Sochi where the Winter Olympics opening ceremony was under way.
The Dogan news agency said on Sunday that the man had been placed in provisional detention, but did not specify the charge against the 45-year-old Ukrainian identified in Turkish media as Artem Kozlov.
The crime of hijacking an aircraft carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison in Turkey.
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 crew tied the man up with rope after tricking him into believing they were headed for Sochi.
Turkish Transport Minister Lutfi Elvan on Saturday ruled out the attempt being part of a wider terror network.
"This was not something very serious," he said. "It was an act of a single individual".
