Duo surrender to end plane hijack stand-off without violence

TWO men who hijacked a plane from Libya to Malta and threatened to blow it up surrendered peacefully and allowed 118 passengers and crew to leave the aircraft before walking out alongside the last of the crew.

The hijacked Airbus A320 flight, operated by Afriqiyah Airways, was travelling from Sabha to Tripoli when it was diverted to Malta yesterday.

Malta state television said the two Libyan hijackers possessed hand grenades and had threatened to detonate them.

Malta’s prime minister, Joseph Muscat, said the two Libyan men had a hand grenade and a pistol, with a second pistol found later on the plane during a search by Maltese soldiers.

He said the 111 passengers on the plane will be returned to Libya after they are questioned by police, while the hijackers are being interrogated.

Ali Milad, the pilot, told Libya Channel TV network that initially the hijackers had asked him to head to Rome.

He identified the two hijackers as Moussa Shaha and Ahmed Ali, Libyans who other officials said were in their 20s.

The pilot said the men were seeking political asylum in Europe and wanted to set up a political party called “the New Fateh”.

Fateh is a reference to former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who led the Fateh revolution after his coup in 1969.

After many of the hostages left the plane, someone, apparently a hijacker, waved the old green Libyan flag from the plane’s doorway.

Libya has been split between rival parliaments and governments, each backed by a loose array of militias and tribes. Gaddafi was ousted and killed by a mob in 2011.

Western nations view the newly formed UN-brokered government as the best hope for unification, but Libya’s parliament, which sits in its far east, will not recognise it.

Amid the chaos, Islamic State and al Qaida affiliates have gained a foothold in recent years.