"With every passing minute, they became more aggressive, and started to behave like hooligans in the cabin. The armed bandits threatened to kill passengers."
"Under those conditions, the only decision that could be taken was to render the criminals harmless," Sovietskaya Rossiya said.
They set off a bomb in the airliner's tail section, setting the plane on fire, Tass said, "An air hostess and three passengers were killed as a result of this terrorism," it said.
"Five of the 11 criminals were killed," Tass said, without giving details.
Izvestia quoted witnesses as saying one hijacker died in the bomb blast, two others committed suicide, and Mrs. Ovechkin had been shot dead by some of her fellow hijackers.
Mrs. Ovechkin at one time had been honored as a Hero Mother of the Soviet Union, the newspaper said. The decoration is given Soviet women who have many children.
Hijacking in the Soviet Union can be punished by death.