Libyan plane hijack ends in surrender

Hijackers forced an airliner to land in Malta on Friday then freed all their hostages unharmed and surrendered after declaring their loyalty to Libya’s late leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Television pictures showed two men being led from the aircraft in handcuffs. The prime minister of the tiny Mediterranean island, Joseph Muscat, tweeted “hijackers surrendered, searched and taken into custody.”

The duo are supporters of slain former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and have asked for political asylum in Malta, Libya’s foreign minister said. Gaddafi was killed in an uprising in 2011, and the country has been racked by factional violence since.

The Airbus A320 had been on an internal flight in Libya on Friday morning when it was diverted to Malta, 500 kilometers north of the Libyan coast, after a hijacker told crew he had a hand grenade.

One hijacker who gave his name as Moussa Shaha told Libyan TV on Friday that he was the head of a party supporting Gaddafi.

The man told Libya’s Channel TV station by phone that he was the head of Al-Fateh AlJadeed, or The New Al-Fateh.

Al-Fateh is the name that Gaddafi gave to September, the month he staged a coup in 1969, and the word came to signify his coming to power.

A Libyan lawmaker who spoke to one of the passengers also said the two hijackers were demanding the creation of a pro-Gaddafi party.

Images circulating in the media appeared to show a hijacker stepping out of the plane with a green flag similar to those used by Gaddafi supporters.

A senior Libyan security official said that when the plane was still in flight on Friday morning the pilot told the control tower at Tripoli’s Mitiga airport it had been hijacked.

Troops took up positions a few hundred meters from the plane as it stood on the tarmac. Several other flights at Malta International Airport were canceled or diverted.