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All 109 Passengers Are Safe After Libyan Jet Is Hijacked and Diverted to Malta Hijacking Ends Peacefully After Libyan Airliner Lands in Malta
(about 5 hours later)
CAIRO — All 109 passengers and crew members on board a hijacked Libyan airliner en route to the capital, Tripoli, were released on Friday, hours after two men claiming to be carrying explosives forced the plane to divert to Malta, Malta’s prime minister said. CAIRO — When two Libyans hijacked a passenger jetliner on Friday and forced it to land in Malta, they claimed to be acting in the name of the country’s former ruler, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.
The hijackers, who were apparently members of a group that supported Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi and seeking asylum in Europe, were taken into custody after surrendering as they left the Airbus A320, according to officials and news reports. They were ripping a page from history as they did it: During his 42 years in power, Colonel Qaddafi sponsored numerous acts of international airline terrorism, including hijackings and the bombing of a Pan Am jet over Lockerbie in 1988 that killed 270 people.
The flight, operated by the state-owned Afriqiyah Airways of Libya, took off from the southern Libyan city of Sebha and was scheduled to fly to Tripoli, which is on the coast. It was diverted to Malta, about 200 miles across the Mediterranean Sea from the Libyan capital. Yet unlike most Qaddafi-era airline dramas, this one was resolved easily. Within hours of landing in Malta, the two hijackers had released the other 115 people aboard and had surrendered peacefully to the Maltese authorities.
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat of Malta, who provided a steady stream of updates on Twitter about the situation, had said that there were 111 passengers on the plane: 82 men, 28 women and one infant, a breakdown that included the two hijackers. Afriqiyah officials confirmed that figure and said that seven crew members had also been on board. Their weapons — a pistol and a grenade — turned out to be replicas. Libyan officials said the two men had asked for visas to Europe.
The Maltese prime minister reported that the hijackers first released a group of 25 women and children, followed by a second block of 25 people. He continued to post updates on Twitter until it was clear that all of the passengers and crew had disembarked. But the hijacking, and its stated inspiration, did point to the enduring chaos of Libya, a country with three rival governments that, despite United Nations-led peace efforts, remains fragile and deeply unstable five years after Colonel Qaddafi’s death.
The hijackers said they represented a new political party, called Al Fateh Al Jadeed — a reference to the 1969 military coup in Libya in which Colonel Qaddafi came to power. “We did this to announce and publicize our new party,” one of the men said in a telephone interview with a Libyan news outlet. After forcing the plane to land in Malta, one of the hijackers emerged with a flag in the green that symbolized Colonel Qaddafi’s rule, and claimed to have established a new political party honoring the autocrat.
Video footage from Malta showed a man standing outside the door of the plane waving a green flag — a symbolic nod to Colonel Qaddafi’s 42-year rule, which ended with his ouster and death in 2011. The episode started early Friday when an Airbus A320 operated by the Libyan state airline, Afriqiyah Airways, took off from the desert town of Sabha, heading north to the capital, Tripoli. Before it could land, the hijackers, whom officials identified as Subah Mussa and Ahmed Ali, seized control of the plane and diverted it to Malta, about 200 miles off the Libyan coast. They had initially demanded to be taken to Rome, but the pilot said there was only enough fuel to reach Malta.
Since then, Libya’s national flag has been replaced with a red, black and green standard that harks back to an earlier period of monarchical rule. The hijackers threatened to detonate a grenade if their demands were not met. Aboard the plane were 109 passengers and six crew members. (Maltese officials initially said there was seven crew members.)
While he was in power, Colonel Qaddafi directly or indirectly supported several acts of airline terrorism, including the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988, which killed 270 people; the bombing of a French aircraft over Niger in 1989 that left 170 dead; and the hijacking of a Pan Am flight to New York from Karachi in 1986 by a Palestinian splinter group that ended with a deadly siege. The hijackers claimed to represent a new political party called Al Fateh Al Jadeed — a reference to the 1969 military coup in Libya that brought Colonel Qaddafi to power. “We did this to announce and publicize our new party,” one of the men said in a telephone interview with a Libyan news outlet.
A senior Afriqiyah Airways official said the hijackers had demanded visas for Europe, suggesting they did not have links to radical militant groups and might instead have intended to seek asylum. Libyan officials, though, believed the hijackers had more personal goals. A senior official with Afriqiyah, Capt. Abdelatif Ali Kablan, said they had demanded Schengen visas to travel in Europe. They did not seem to be linked to any of the radical Islamist groups, like Islamic State, that operate in Libya, he added.
“We feared they might be some of those ideological people, but that seems not to be the case,” said the official, Capt. Abdelatif Ali Kablan, the chairman of the airline, speaking by telephone from Tripoli. “We feared they might be some of those ideological people, but that seems not to be the case,” Captain Kablan said by phone from Libya.
Throughout the crisis, Malta’s prime minister, Joseph Muscat, used Twitter to provide a running feed of information about the security operation, the orderly release of the passengers in batches of 25 and the eventual surrender of the two hijackers.
In a news conference later, Mr. Muscat said his security forces had found a pistol and a grenade on the hijackers, and discovered a second pistol in a subsequent search of the airplane, raising questions about security standards in Libyan airports.
Later, though, Mr. Muscat posted that the weapons were replicas.
It was the second hijacking this year of a passenger jet in the Mediterranean region. In March, an Egyptian man commandeered a domestic EgyptAir flight en route to Cairo and forced it to land in Cyprus, where he demanded the release of political prisoners in Egypt and a meeting with his estranged wife.It was the second hijacking this year of a passenger jet in the Mediterranean region. In March, an Egyptian man commandeered a domestic EgyptAir flight en route to Cairo and forced it to land in Cyprus, where he demanded the release of political prisoners in Egypt and a meeting with his estranged wife.
The crisis ended hours later with the surrender of the hijacker, Seif Eldin Mustafa, who turned out to be wearing a fake explosive vest fashioned from mobile phone cases that had been taped together. The crisis ended hours later with the surrender of the hijacker, Seif Eldin Mustafa, who turned out to be wearing a fake explosive vest fashioned from mobile phone cases that had been taped together. Some news outlets later nicknamed him the “lovejacker.”
In September, a court in Cyprus ordered the deportation of Mr. Mustafa, 59, to Egypt. His lawyers are resisting the order and seeking asylum for Mr. Mustafa, claiming he could be tortured if sent home. In September, a court in Cyprus ordered the deportation of Mr. Mustafa to Egypt. His lawyers are resisting the order and seeking asylum for Mr. Mustafa, claiming that he could be tortured if sent home.
As well as supporting the Pan Am bombing in 1988, Colonel Qaddafi was also linked to the bombing of a French aircraft over Niger in 1989 that left 170 dead and the hijacking of a Pan Am flight to New York from Karachi in 1986 by a Palestinian splinter group that ended with a deadly siege.
Today, many senior officials from his government live in exile in Cairo, Tunis or Europe. There is no significant pro-Qaddafi movement inside Libya, although the dominant military commander in the east, Gen. Khalifa Hifter, has often been said to harbor strongman ambitions similar to those of Colonel Qaddafi.
Many Libyans, though, say in private that they yearn for the order and prosperity of the Qaddafi era. Rival militias and political factions have carved the country into zones of influence, causing a sharp decline in the country’s oil production and a severe economic crisis that has caused hardship for most Libyans.