EgyptAir hijack: Cyprus airport hostage drama ends

Hostage drama ends after EgyptAir jet was diverted to Cyprus, amid reports that incident was not politically motivated.

A man climbs out of the cockpit window of the hijacked EgyptAir plane at Larnaca airport [Yiannis Kourtoglou/Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Cyprus’ foreign ministry has reported that the hijacker of an EgyptAir passenger jet has been arrested at the island’s Larnaca airport after a five-hour standoff.

The EgyptAir domestic flight from Alexandria to Cairo was hijacked on Tuesday morning and forced to divert to Cyprus, in an incident that was not politically motivated, the president of Cyprus said.

EgyptAir said flight 181 had 81 people on board, including a crew of seven. Most of them were released shortly after landing in Cyprus.

At around 11:30 GMT, the last seven people were seen leaving the aircraft, one whom escaped though the cockpit window.

Earlier on Tuesday, aviation minister Sherif Fathy at a news conference in Cairo said three foreign passengers were still on board, together with the pilot and co-pilot, one flight attendant and an air marshal.

Initial reports said that the pilot of the plane was threatened by a passenger strapped with explosives, but Fathy said this has not been confirmed.

Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades said the hijacker seemed to have a personal motive and that the incident was “not related to terrorism”.

Negotiations with the Hijacker result in the release of all the passengers, except the crew and four foreigners.

— EGYPTAIR (@EGYPTAIR) March 29, 2016

The plane was an Airbus 320, Egypt’s aviation ministry said. An official with flight-tracking website FlightRadar24 said the plane showed no immediate signs of distress. The flight between Alexandria and Cairo normally takes about 30 minutes.

The ministry said in a statement that pilot Omar al-Gammal had informed authorities that he was threatened by a passenger who possessed a suicide belt and forced him to land in Larnaca.

Cyprus foreign ministry identified the hijacker as Seif Eldin Mustafa and said it could not confirm the man was rigged with explosives.

Cyprus state TV said that the hijacker wanted to contact his ex-wife, who is Greek-Cypriot and lives in Larnaca.

Witnesses told Cyprus Mail newspaper that the he threw a letter on the apron of the airport in Larnaca, written in Arabic, asking that it be delivered to his ex-wife.

Other media outlets in Cyprus reported he first asked to be taken to Istanbul but that the pilot refused this demand.

CYBC said the airplane was parked at an apron at Larnaca airport. The hijacker asked police to back away from the aircraft, it said.

Egypt’s vital tourism industry was already reeling from the crash of a Russian passenger plane in the Sinai in late October.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has said it was brought down by an attack. Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) has said it planted a bomb, killing all 224 people on board.

Cyprus has seen little militant activity for decades, despite its proximity to the Middle East.

A botched attempt by Egyptian commandos to storm a hijacked airliner at Larnaca airport led to the disruption of diplomatic relations between Cyprus and Egypt in 1978.