PLANE CRAZY: MAN HELD FOR EGYPTAIR HIJACK OVER EX-WIFE
LARNACA, CYPRUS: An Egyptian wearing a fake explosives belt who hijacked a domestic EgyptAir flight and forced it to land in Cyprus on Tuesday surrendered and was taken into custody after releasing all passengers and crew unharmed following an hours-long standoff.
Officials said early on that the hijacking was not an act of terrorism, and later that the man, identified as Seif al-Din Mohamed Mostafa, appeared to be psychologically unstable.
“From the start, it was clear that this wasn’t an act of terrorism…we understood that this was a psychologically unstable person,” Cyprus’ foreign minister Ioannis Kasoulides said.
But Egyptian foreign ministry officials were not as generous. “He’s not a terrorist, he’s an idiot. Terrorists are crazy but they aren’t stupid. This guy is,” media reports quoted them as saying.
Kasoulides said the man initially asked to speak with his Cypriot ex-wife, who police brought to the airport. “After that, he started asking for European Union representatives to assure him about matters that had no logical basis,” he said.
At one point the hijacker demanded the release of women held in Egyptian prisons, but he then dropped the demand and made others. “His demands made no sense or were too incoherent to be taken seriously,” the minister said.
The contents of a letter the hijacker wanted to give to his exwife were also incoherent.
Police in Cairo were questioning the hijacker’s relatives.
Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades, in an earlier appearance alongside European Parliament President Martin Schulz in Nicosia, was asked whether the incident involved a woman. “Always, there is a woman,” he replied, drawing laughter.