Libyan jet hijacked
‘Khadafy’ duo land in Malta
Two men armed with fake weapons hijacked a Libyan plane with 117 people aboard Friday and diverted it to Malta, where they declared their loyalty to slain dictator Moammar Khadafy and threatened to blow it up before surrendering, officials said.
The state-owned Afriqiyah Airways plane was en route from Sabha in southern Libya to the capital Tripoli when the two men — armed with what appeared to be a grenade and two pistols — forced the pilots to fly to the tiny Mediterranean island.
They sparked a fourhour runway standoff as they sang the praises of Khaddafy, whose death in 2011 plunged the country into chaos, Agence France-Presse reported.
The men wanted to set up a pro-Khadafy political party and planned to ask for political asylum in Malta, Libyan Foreign Min- ister Taher Siala said. But Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said they had not done so.
“However, I can’t exclude anyone making that request over the coming hours,” he told the Malta Independent newspaper.
Muscat tweeted late Friday that the hijackers’ weapons were replicas, Malta Today reported.
Ali Milad, the pilot, told a Libyan TV network that the hijackers — identified as Moussa Saha and Ahmed Ali of Libya — had earlier asked him to head to Rome but Malta was much closer.
The Airbus A320 landed at Malta International Airport at 11:34 a.m. local time with 109 passengers, six crew and the two hijackers on board.
After releasing a group of women and children, authorities told the hijackers there would be no negotiations unless everyone was let go. After four hours, they freed the last four hostages and surrendered