Hostages freed without violence after hijackers using a replica hand grenade and pistols took control of Afriqiyah Airways flight

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Two men loyal to the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi hijacked a domestic flight with a replica hand grenade and pistols and forced the pilot to fly to Malta, reportedly claiming they wanted publicity for a new political party before letting passengers and crew leave the plane unharmed.

The four-hour standoff with negotiators from Malta and Libya ended on Friday when the two men came out of the Afriqiyah Airways plane with a crewmember who was their final hostage, and were led away in handcuffs.

The crew and 116 other passengers on board were allowed to leave the plane in batches, after which the Maltese prime minister, Joseph Muscat, tweeted:

Joseph Muscat (@JosephMuscat_JM) Hijackers surrendered, searched and taken in custody.

In a later tweet, he said initial examinations had shown that the weapons used were replicas.

The Airbus A320, operated by the state-owned airline, was hijacked on an internal route between the cities of Sabha and Tripoli. During the negotiations, one of the hijackers told Libya’s Channel TV in a phone call that he headed a party supporting Gaddafi, and had organised the incident to promote the group.

But the men’s exact demands, relayed to a team of Libyan and Maltese officials after Muscat spoke with his Libyan counterpart, remained unclear even after the negotiations were wrapped up.



Muscat said the negotiators had refused to open discussions until all passengers had been released and denied a report from the Libyan foreign minister that the men had claimed political asylum.



“The hijackers were told that in order for any discussions to be entertained, they should release all passengers first,” Muscat said. “This request was negotiated and eventually accepted and passengers were released in groups.”

The men’s party was apparently called the New Al-Fateh, a reference to the 1969 coup that brought Gaddafi to power, Reuters reported. Photos from Malta appeared to show a hijacker standing outside the plane with a green flag like those used by Gaddafi supporters.

Libya’s autocratic former leader was toppled and killed in a 2011 uprising, during which three of his sons also died. Since then, much of the oil-rich, sparsely populated country has descended into chaos.

Rival governments are vying for control, with western nations backing the UN-brokered administration as the best hope for uniting Libya, while a parliament that meets in the far east refuses to accept the government’s authority.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest One of the hijackers waves a Gaddafi-era Libyan flag outside the plane. Photograph: Darrin Zammit Lupi/Reuters

The power vacuum has allowed affiliates of Islamic State and al-Qaida to take root and fuelled human trafficking along the coast. In recent years Libya’s beaches have become a key jumping-off point for migrants and refugees attempting the dangerous sea journey to Europe.

The chaos in Libya may also have allowed the men to smuggle their weapons on board.

The men initially told the pilot to fly to Malta, 220 miles (350km) north of Tripoli, but then briefly headed back towards Libya, and finally turned around again to land in Malta, an Afriqiyah Airways official said. The pilot had tried to persuade the hijackers to land in Libya, Reuters quoted a security source at the main airport as saying.

“The pilot reported to the control tower in Tripoli that they were being hijacked, then they lost communication with him,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “The pilot tried very hard to have them land at the correct destination.”



All flights to and from Malta’s airport were cancelled or diverted during the standoff, and security forces gathered near the plane, which sat on the runway with its engines running long after it had landed.



The Maltese president, Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, appealed for calm.

Marie-Louise Coleiro (@presidentMT) Following the news re #Afriqiyah Airways @Maltairport, I appeal for everyone to remain calm and follow official updates

Negotiations were under way by early afternoon, and the first releases were announced soon after Muscat spoke to his Libyan counterpart, Fayez al-Sarraj.

Malta has been a destination for hijackers before. In 1985, an EgyptAir flight from Athens to Cairo was forced to land on the island, where a 24-hour ordeal ended with the death of 60 hostages. Many of them were killed when Egyptian commandos stormed the plane in what was considered a botched operation.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Some passengers disembark from the hijacked Libyan Afriqiyah Airways flight on the runway at Malta airport. Photograph: Darrin Zammit Lupi/Reuters

Twelve years earlier, the then prime minister, Dom Mintoff, negotiated a successful conclusion to another hijacking. A KLM flight from Amsterdam to Tokyo was hijacked over Iraqi airspace, then flew to Malta after it was refused landing permission everywhere else. Mintoff secured the release of 247 passengers and eight crewmembers in return for fuel, and the plane headed to Dubai, where the remaining hostages were released.

In 1997, an Air Malta flight to Istanbul was hijacked by two men who used hoax bombs to force a landing in Germany. They surrendered peacefully after two hours of negotiations.