Hijackers surrender after seizing Libyan plane and forcing it to land in Malta
Two men armed with a grenades hijacked the plane with 118 people on board but later released all the passengers
The hijackers of a Libyan plane that landed in Malta earlier on Friday left the aircraft and surrendered after releasing all the passengers and crew, Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said.
“Hijackers surrendered, searched and taken in custody,” Muscat tweeted.
Two men armed with a grenades hijacked the plane with 118 people on board. After more than an hour on the tarmac, the plane’s door opened and a first group of women and children were seen descending a mobile staircase.
“First group of passengers, consisting of women and children, being released now,” Muscat said on Twitter, adding in a later tweet that 50 passengers in all were being let off the plane. The Airbus A320 had been on a domestic Libyan route operated by Afriqiyah Airways from Sabha in southern Libya to the capital Tripoli but was re-routed.
“The Afriqiyah flight from Sabha to Tripoli has been diverted and has landed in Malta. Security services coordinating operations,” Muscat said on his official Twitter account.
“It has been established that Afriqiyah flight has 111 passengers on board: 82 males, 28 females, 1 infant,” he said. There are also seven crew members. Muscat later spoke to Libya’s prime minister-designate Fayez al-Sarraj, the head of the north African country’s fledgling unity government.