Hijacked Afghan plane returns to Kabul

KABUL, March 4 (Reuters) - An Afghan Boeing 727 plane hijacked to London last month returned to Kabul on Saturday without its two flight recorders, officials said.

``The plane arrived safely with four crew members, but British authorities have removed the two recording machines from it without giving any reason,'' an official of the state Ariana Airlines said.

``It is great to be back home. I was homesick,'' plane captain Sayed Nabi said.

The Ariana plane was supposed to arrive at Kabul international airport on Friday but was diverted to northern town Mazar-i-Sharif, where it spent the night, because of bad weather over the capital.

The aircraft was flown back by the same crew that was on board when it was hijacked and taken on February 7 to Britain, where the hijack drama ended after four days.

Of the 170 people  on board the plane when it landed in London, 73 returned to Afghanistan soon afterard but many others stayed behind to seek political asylum.

Britain has allowed two of the applicants to stay but rejected 27 asylum claims and postponed judgement on 14.

Ariana chairman Mullah Hameedullah, quoted by a Pakistan-based news service, said on Friday that none of the passengers whose asylum claim was rejected by the British authorities returned on the flight from Britain.

Ariana officials said the plane was functional and would be used to fly Afghans to the Moslem holy city of Mecca in  Saudi Arabia for the annual Haj  pilgrimage due in mid-March.