Helicopter 'hijacked' in Shandong after financial dispute

An alleged helicopter-hijacking on Tuesday in Shandong Province was triggered by a financial dispute between two rival helicopter companies, local authorities said Wednesday.

A helicopter hired from Hubei Yinyan General Aviation Company by a forest park in Xiajin county was flown away from the forest park to Pingyuan county by its own pilot, acting in cahoots with Zhang Hongwei, the former legal representative of the Shandong-based Wanli Aviation Company, according to a statement from the Xiajin county public security bureau (PSB).

When Zhang from Wanli, which is based in nearby Pingyuan county in Shandong, discovered the helicopter from Yinyan Aviation was in Xiajin, he persuaded the pilot to fly the aircraft to Wanli's Pingyuan base on Tuesday afternoon.

Yinyan then called police claiming their aircraft had been hijacked, Xiajin PSB said.

The two suspects involved in the "hijacking" are in police custody, chinanews.com reported.

A Xiajin police officer, surnamed Wang, told the Global Times Wednesday that the incident was caused due to a financial dispute between the two aviation companies and a salary problem between the disgruntled pilot, Li Jun,  and current employer Yinyan Aviation.

Wanli has claimed Yinyan Aviation owes it about 2 million yuan ($325,400), said Wang.

The situation is further complicated because Li previously worked for Wanli, said Wang.

"Yinyan also owes Li money too," said Wang, although he did not know how much.

The news first appeared on a Sina microblog Tuesday, which claimed that a helicopter from a private aviation company was hijacked from Xiajin to Pingyuan in Shandong, and the pilot was missing.

A Web user named Stanley Li Qiyong from Shanghai even claimed that 20 anonymous people beat the pilot and hijacked his helicopter.

"One of them got on the helicopter forcing the pilot to fly the aircraft," Li said on his Sina microblog. The postings related to the incident drew hundreds of reposts and comments.

But Wang denied the online allegations. "Instead of an aircraft hijacking case, it is an economic dispute between two companies," he said.

Yinyan Aviation refused to comment Wednesday, and Wanli could not be reached.