A plane on an internal flight in Libya has been hijacked and forced to land in Malta with 118 people on board.
Two hijackers on board the state-owned Afriqiyah Airways plane have hand grenades and are threatening to blow up the aircraft, according to Malta state television.
Around two-and-a-half hours after hijacked Flight 8U209 landed at Valletta, passengers began leaving the Airbus A320.
Maltese government sources said that at least one hijacker on board had told crew that he had a grenade. He said he was “pro-Gaddafi” and would release all passengers – but not the crew – if his as-yet-undisclosed demands were accepted, local media reported.
The deputy mayor for Lija in Malta, Madga Magri Naudi, confirmed that the hijackers had not yet made demands.
“The request has not been made,” she told the BBC. “This is a problem: we do not know what their requests are at the moment.”
The aircraft was carrying 111 passengers – 82 men, 28 women and an infant – and seven crew members was diverted on Friday morning.
Two hijackers appear to be on board the plane, which remains on the runway, according to Malta airport officials.
The plane could be seen on the tarmac at Valletta surrounded by military vehicles and all flights have been cancelled.
The plane’s engines were still running long after the aircraft landed at 10.30am GMT.
A source from Libya’s unity government confirmed hijackers diverted the plane belonging to the national carrier and that it had received permission to land in Malta.
The pilot had tried to land in Libya, but the hijackers refused his request, he told Triploi airport control before communications were lost, according to a security official.
“The pilot reported to the control tower in Tripoli that they were being hijacked, then they lost communication with him,” the official said. “The pilot tried very hard to have them land at the correct destination but they refused.”
The Malta airport authority said all emergency teams had been dispatched to the site of what it called an “unlawful interference” on the airport tarmac.
Joseph Muscat, the Maltese premier, said that security forces were standing by to deal with the unfolding situation.
He tweeted that he had been alerted to the incident involving the plane, which landed in Malta having been due to fly from Sebha in southwest Libya to Tripoli before it was re-routed.
The tiny Mediterranean island of Malta is about 300 miles (500 km) north of the Libyan coast.
Earlier on Friday, in a post from his official account, Mr Muscat said: “Informed of potential hijack situation of a Libya internal flight diverted to Malta. Security and emergency operations standing by -JM.”
Emergency teams had been dispatched to the airport and soldiers and special forces vehicles were seen on the runway surrounding the plane.
Libya has been in a state of chaos since the 2011 overthrow of Col Muammar Gaddafi left warring militias battling for control of different parts of the country.
Forces loyal to a fledgling national unity government recently took control of the coastal city of Sirte, which had been a bastion for the Islamic State group since June 2015.
Western powers have pinned their hopes of containing jihadism in the energy-rich North African state on the government but it has failed to establish its authority over all of the country.
A rival authority rules the country’s far east, backed by the forces under military strongman Marshal Khalifa Haftar, who have been battling jihadists in second city Benghazi.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/12/23/flight-diverted-malta-amid-potential-hijack-situation/
“Two hijackers on board the state-owned Afriqiyah Airways plane have hand grenades and are threatening to blow up the aircraft, according to Malta state television.”
What… someone invented non-metal grenades? If you can’t even get a gun through airport security, how the hell did grenades make it through.
Smells like Mossad to me.