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Passengers released from hijacked Libyan Afriqiyah Airways plane diverted to Malta Hijack of Libyan plane in Malta ends peacefully as Gaddafi loyalists surrender
(about 2 hours later)
Most passengers and staff have been released from a Libyan plane which was hijacked and diverted to Malta. Two hijackers who diverted a Libyan passenger plane to Malta claiming to have a grenade have surrendered peacefully following hours of tense negotiations.
Two hijackers and some staff could still be on board the flight, according to the Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat. There were 118 people, including seven crew members, on board the hijacked Afriqiyah Airways Airbus A320, which was on an internal flight from Sabha in south east Libya to the capital city of Tripoli.
The passenger plane with 111 passengers on board was on an internal flight in Libya when it was diverted. The hijackers, who declared loyalty to Libya’s late leader Muammar Gaddafi, were carrying a pistol along with a hand grenade and second pistol found during initial investigations, said the Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.
“Informed of potential hijack situation of a Libya internal flight diverted to Malta. Security and emergency operations standing by,” wrote Mr Muscat on Twitter. Mr Muscat, effectively broke the news this morning, tweeting: “Informed of potential hijack situation of a Libya internal flight diverted to Malta. Security and emergency operations standing by.“
Mr Muscat also said of the passengers on the flight, 82 were men, 28 were women and there was one child. All flights to Malta International Airport were immediately cancelled or diverted and emergency teams including security officers and negotiators were sent to the airport tarmac. 
The Deputy Mayor for Lija in Malta said “two people on board have been threatening to blow up the plane,” reported the BBC. The passengers –  82 men, 28 women and one child – were allowed to leave the plane before the hijackers walked out themselves with the last of the crew.
A security official at Tripoli Airport has said the pilot tried to land in Tripoli but the hijackers refused, according to Reuters. The official said the pilot was in contact with Tripoli Airport Control but communications were then lost. “Hijackers surrendered, searched and taken in custody,” wrote Mr Muscat at 3:44pm local time, two hours after the plane’s doors opened and a staircase was moved over to let freed passengers begin disembarking in groups.
Other reports suggested one hijacker was on board the plane claiming to be in possession of a hand grenade, according to Maltese media. After passengers had left the plane, a man briefly appeared at the top of the steps with a plain green flag resembling that of Gaddafi's now-defunct state.
The hijacker has reportedly claimed he is pro-Gaddafi and said he was willing to let passengers go apart from the crew if his demands were met. The plain green flag was adopted in 1977 by Libya when Gaddafi became the Libyan dictator through a coup d'etat, until his death in 2011.
The plane is an Afriqiyah Airways Airbus A320, believed to have been on its way from Sebha in south west Libya to the capital Tripoli. Libya's Channel TV station said one hijacker, who gave his name as Moussa Shaha, had said by phone he was the head of Al-Fateh Al-Jadid, or The New Al-Fateh. 
Muammar Gaddafi, the former Prime Minister of Libya commonly known as Colonel Gaddafi, died in 2011. Al-Fateh is the name that Gaddafi gave to September, the month he staged a coup in 1969, and the word came to signify his coming to power.
"We think there's been an unlawful interference at our airport. All emergency police in the have been dispatched to the site [where the plane has landed], a spokesperson for Malta International Airport told The Independent In a tweet, the TV station later quoted the hijacker as saying: “We took this measure to declare and promote our new party.”
"At the moment we don't have information on what is happening on board." Libya, a sprawling oil-rich North African country, has been split between rival parliaments and governments, each backed by a loose array of militias and tribes, since Gaddafi’s death.
According to the Times of Malta, the plane's engines were still running and it was surrounded by soldiers, but no one is yet believed to have approached the plane. Western nations view the newly-formed UN-brokered government as the best hope for uniting the country, but Libya's parliament, which meets in the country's far east, has refused to accept it. Amid chaos, the Islamic State and al-Qaida affiliates have gained a foothold over the past years. 
More follows... Earlier this month, militias answering to the UN-brokered government seized the Islamic State group's last stronghold in the Libyan city of Sirte. 
Airport security in Libya can be poor and is not always under state control, according to BBC journalist Rana Jawad.
“Every airport in Libya is poorly secured and technically run by one armed group or another, outside state control,” she wrote on Twitter.
Ms Jawad also said the mayor of Sebha in Libya had said a preliminary investigation had found one of the hijackers was called Musa Shah and he was possibly seeking political asylum.