TRIBUTE PAID TO HIJACKING VICTIM.

TRIBUTE PAID TO HIJACKING VICTIM.

Vnukovo Airlines flight attendant Yulia Fomina, who was accidentally killed by Saudi commandos when they stormed a Russian plane sitting on the tarmac in Medina which had been hijacked by three Chechens armed with a single kitchen knife and a cell phone which they said was a bomb, has been made a posthumous Russian hero. She was buried to the strains of the new Russian national anthem and a triple volley salute. The plane on which she had served and a Moscow street are to be named after her, and her family is to receive a four-room apartment in the capital, plus “the equivalent of ten [of her] yearly salaries.” By all reports, Fomina behaved professionally and courageously during the hijacking (Gazeta.ru, March 19; Lenta.ru, March 19, 21; Nezavisimaya Gazeta, March 20).