Luke Skywalker
Super Moderator
{vb:raw ozzmodz_postquote}:
An Egyptian passenger plane was hijacked while flying from Alexandria to Cairo on Tuesday morning. Officials say the hijacker is an Egyptian man. The plane was flown to Cyprus, where most of the passengers were let out. (March 29)
A police officer patrols outside the airport as an hijacked aircraft of EgyptAir is seen after landing at Larnaca Airport in Cyprus Tuesday, March 29, 2016.(Photo: Petros Karadjias, AP)
CAIRO —<span style="color: Red;">*</span>A<span style="color: Red;">*</span>man hijacked a<span style="color: Red;">*</span>passenger plane and forced it to land<span style="color: Red;">*</span>at Larnaca airport in Cyprus on Tuesday in an incident that<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Cyprus'<span style="color: Red;">*</span>president said was related to a woman,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>not terrorism.
The<span style="color: Red;">*</span>domestic<span style="color: Red;">*</span>EgyptAir<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Airbus 320<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Flight 181<span style="color: Red;">*</span>was hijacked while flying from the coastal city of<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Alexandria<span style="color: Red;">*</span>to Cairo. Egypt's<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Ministry of Civil Aviation said<span style="color: Red;">*</span>there were 81 passengers aboard the plane, which<span style="color: Red;">*</span>took off<span style="color: Red;">*</span>at about 6:30 a.m. local time.
Most of the passengers were<span style="color: Red;">*</span>released apparently unharmed while a handful of<span style="color: Red;">*</span>crew and passengers remained<span style="color: Red;">*</span>aboard as<span style="color: Red;">*</span>negotiations with the hijacker<span style="color: Red;">*</span>continued.
TV footage from<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the scene showed a man jumping out of<span style="color: Red;">*</span>a cockpit window while three others walked down<span style="color: Red;">*</span>steps from the plane, before<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Cyprus' Ministry of Foreign Affairs tweeted that the incident was over and the hijacker was<span style="color: Red;">*</span>arrested, more than seven hours after the plane took off. All the passengers were freed.
Egyptian authorities told a news conference that<span style="color: Red;">*</span>little more than a half hour after takeoff,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>a<span style="color: Red;">*</span>passenger confronted the pilot with a bomb threat. The man originally wanted to land in either Turkey or Cyprus, and after some negotiation they agreed on Larnaca. The plane touched down at 7:50 a.m.
The man did not have a gun, but there was still a danger to passengers and crew because officials were unsure if the bomb was real or fake, authorities said. Officials<span style="color: Red;">*</span>reached out to the families of the hostages to let them know what happened.
[h=4]Posted![/h]A link has been posted to your Facebook feed.
“We don’t know yet how he got the equipment and whether it is real or not.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>The reality is we are dealing with it as a real threat, because we can’t take any risks,"<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Egyptian Minister of Civil Aviation<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Sherif<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Fathy told the news<span style="color: Red;">*</span>conference in Cairo.
He said the hijacker had made no concrete demands.
Seif Eldin Mustafa. - Twitter Search
Cyprus' Ministry of Foreign Affairs<span style="color: Red;">*</span>named the suspected hijacker as<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Seif Eldin Mustafa.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>The Egyptian government apologized to a man it earlier wrongly named as the hijacker, Al Arabiya reported.
Cypriot state media reported that the hijacker's<span style="color: Red;">*</span>ex-wife was<span style="color: Red;">*</span>taken from<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Larnaca to the airport to talk with the hijacker, who was<span style="color: Red;">*</span>asking<span style="color: Red;">*</span>authorities deliver a 4-page-letter to her or he would<span style="color: Red;">*</span>detonate<span style="color: Red;">*</span>explosives strapped<span style="color: Red;">*</span>to his body.
The<span style="color: Red;">*</span>hijacker<span style="color: Red;">*</span>has four<span style="color: Red;">*</span>children with his ex-wife, named by local media as<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Marina Paraschou,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Kathimerini<span style="color: Red;">*</span>newspaper reported. It<span style="color: Red;">*</span>said the hijacker was<span style="color: Red;">*</span>a veterinary professor at the University of Alexandria.
Cyprus President<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Nicos Anastasiades told a news conference<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the incident "has nothing to do with terrorism."
A<span style="color: Red;">*</span>journalist asked<span style="color: Red;">*</span>if it<span style="color: Red;">*</span>was related to a woman to which<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Anastasiades replied<span style="color: Red;">*</span>"there's always a woman involved."
Egypt's Ministry of Civil Aviation said on its website that the passengers included<span style="color: Red;">*</span>8 Americans, 4 Dutch, 2 Belgians, 4 Britons, 2 people from Bali in Indonesia, and<span style="color: Red;">*</span>one passenger each from France, Syria and Italy. It said<span style="color: Red;">*</span>15 crew members were taken hostage, but<span style="color: Red;">*</span>did not release their nationalities.
EgyptAir said<span style="color: Red;">*</span>it was working on getting authorization<span style="color: Red;">*</span>for a plane from Cairo<span style="color: Red;">*</span>to land in Larnaca to collect the freed passengers.
Egyptian airport security has been audited by several agencies over the years.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>The incident comes five months after a Russian passenger plane<span style="color: Red;">*</span>crashed over Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, killing all<span style="color: Red;">*</span>224 people aboard.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>An affiliate of the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Islamic State group<span style="color: Red;">*</span>claimed responsibility.
Contributing: Jabeen Bhatti,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Janon Fisher<span style="color: Red;">*</span>
EGYPTAIR PLANE HIJACKINGEgyptAir hijacking 'not terrorism-related' says Cyprus president | 00:37The hijacking of an EgyptAir plane to Cyprus on Tuesday is not related to terrorism, the island's President Nicos Anastasiades said. Video provided by AFP Newslook
EGYPTAIR PLANE HIJACKINGMarkets React to the Egypt Air Flight Hijacking | 02:11March 29 -- Simon French, chief economist at Panmure Gordon, discusses market reaction to the hijacking of an Egypt Air flight and geopolitical risks in general. He speaks with Francine Lacqua on Bloomberg Television's "The Pulse." Bloomberg
EGYPTAIR PLANE HIJACKINGHijacker Forces EgyptAir Plane to Land in Cyprus | 01:07March 29 -- A hijacker claiming to be wearing an explosive belt forced a domestic EgyptAir flight to land in Cyprus, and then released most of the more than 50 people on board. Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades said the takeover of the aircraft w Bloomberg
EGYPTAIR PLANE HIJACKINGHijacked Egyptian plane on tarmac in Cyprus | 00:34An Egyptian passenger plane was hijacked while flying from Alexandria to Cairo on Tuesday morning. Officials say the hijacker is an Egyptian man. The plane was flown to Cyprus, where most of the passengers were let out. (March 29)
Last VideoNext Video
Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feed