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UP FRONTWednesday 30 March 2016

Hijack drama ends in Cyprus with arrest of ‘unstable’ man

M. HADJICOSTIS stairs from the plane, car-
M. MICHAEL
Associated Press rying their hand luggage
LARNACA, Cyprus (AP) — A
man described as “psycho- and boarding a bus. But he
logically unstable” hijacked
a flight Tuesday from Egypt kept on board seven peo-
to Cyprus and threatened
to blow it up. His explosives ple: four members of the
turned out to be fake, and
he surrendered with all flight crew and three pas-
passengers released un-
harmed after a bizarre six- sengers.
hour standoff.
As more became known Mustafa later asked to
about the motive of the
59-year-old Egyptian who speak to European Union
was taken into custody,
authorities characterized representatives, and
the commandeering of the
EgyptAir jetliner not as an among his demands were
act of terrorism but more
like a “family feud” with his the release of female in-
former wife.
The aviation drama ended mates held in Egyptian pris-
peacefully on the tarmac
of Larnaca airport on the ons. “It was one demand
island nation’s southern
coast with the surrender of he made, then dropped it
a man identified by Cypriot
and Egyptian authorities as and made another,” Ka-
Seif Eddin Mustafa.
The incident was likely to re- soulides said. “His demands
new concerns about Egyp-
tian airport security months made no sense or were too
after a Russian passenger
plane was blown out of the incoherent to be taken seri-
sky over the Sinai Peninsula
ously.”

From the start, “it was clear

that this wasn’t an act of

terrorism,” he added.

A man leaves the hijacked aircraft of Egyptair from pilot window at Larnaca airport in Cyprus “Despite the fact that the
Tuesday, March 29, 2016. An Egyptian man hijacked an EgyptAir plane Tuesday and forced it to
land on the island of Cyprus, where all passengers and crew were eventually freed and he himself individual appeared to be
was arrested, Egyptian and Cypriot officials said.
dangerous in terms of his
(AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)
behavior, we understood

in a bombing claimed by the man got arrested.” claimed to have explosives that this was a psychologi-
the Islamic State group. EgyptAir Flight 181 took off in his belt and forced the
But Egyptian officials from the Mediterranean pilot to fly the Airbus 320 to cally unstable person,” he
stressed that their secu- coastal city of Alexandria Cyprus, Egyptian authori-
rity measures were not for a 30-minute hop to Cai- ties said. said. Hussein Abdelkarim
to blame, and there was ro with at least 72 people Egyptian passenger Farah
praise for the EgyptAir flight aboard, Cyprus police said, el-Dabani told the Dubai- Tantaway Mubarak,
crew. Pilot Amr Gamal told including about two dozen based Al-Arabiyah TV net-
The Associated Press: “We foreigners. work that the hijacker was Egypt’s ambassador to Cy-
rescued all the people and At some point, the hijacker seated in the back of the
aircraft and that it was the prus, said the whole affair
crew who told passengers
that the plane was being “looks like it was a family
hijacked.
“There was panic at the feud.” “As far as I know, I
beginning, but the crew
told us to be quiet. They did think he has a family prob-
a good job to keep us all
quiet so the hijacker does lem, probably with mem-
not do anything rash,” she
said in a telephone inter- bers of his family, probably
view.
After the jet landed in Lar- his ex-wife or something,”
naca about 9 a.m., the hi-
jacker asked to speak to his Mubarak added.
Cypriot ex-wife, who was
brought to the airport, and A Cypriot police official
he sent out a letter from the
aircraft to give to her, said who spoke on condition
Cypriot Foreign Minister Io-
annis Kasoulides. of anonymity because he
The foreigners on board
included eight Americans, was not authorized to give
four Britons, four Dutch, two
Belgians, a French national, out details of the investiga-
an Italian, two Greeks and
one Syrian, the Egyptian tion said the hijacker and
Civil Aviation Ministry said.
The nationalities of three his wife were divorced in
other foreigners could not
be determined immedi- 1994, and the couple had
ately.
Most of the passengers four children.
were freed, and they calm-
ly walked down a set of The hijacker eventually

realized there was “no

chance” any of his de-

mands would be met, Ka-

soulides said, and he left

the plane, where he was

immediately arrested by

anti-terrorism police. The

belt of explosives turned

out to be “telephone cas-

es” made to look like they

were explosives.

Just minutes before the ar-

rest, several people were

seen also getting off the

aircraft, and a crew mem-

ber — later identified as

Ahmed el-Qaddah —

climbed out of the cockpit

window and slid down the

side of the plane in accor-

dance with his training for

such emergencies.q