A domestic Libyan passenger flight was hijacked and diverted to Malta on Friday by two Qaddafi loyalists who later surrendered after a stand-off with security forces.
The hijackers were taken into custody by Maltese authorities after all 118 passengers and crew from the state-owned Afriqiyah Airways Airbus 320 were released unharmed.
In a bizarre twist, one of the hijackers told a Libyan television channel which contacted them inside the plane that they were seeking to publicise a new political party supporting the country’s late dictator, Muammar Qaddafi. The party, named Al Fateh, is a reference to the name Qaddafi gave to the coup that brought him to power in 1969.
Malta’s prime minister Joseph Muscat, who coordinated the Maltese response after the jet landed on the tiny Mediterranean island, tweeted the end of the standoff: “Hijackers surrendered, searched and taken into custody.”
Mr Muscat said a grenade and a pistol was taken from the men, and a second handgun was found after a search of the plane, but the government later said the weapons were replicas.
The drama began at 11.20 in the morning shortly before the jet was due to land at Tripoli’s Mitiga airport after a routine flight from Sebha in southern Libya.
Libyan media reported that the pilot told ground controllers that two men had threatened to blow up the plane with a bomb, and demanded it divert to Malta.
Tracking radar showed the plane headed towards Malta, 350 kilometres north of the Libyan capital, briefly doubling back, then resuming its course and landing at 11.30 local time.
Maltese authorities deployed security units around the plane, and the airport was briefly closed to traffic.
Negotiations began with the hijackers and Mr Muscat spoke to the prime minister of Libya’s UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA), Fayez Al Serraj.
In the early afternoon a set of mobile stairs was wheeled across to the plane and the hijackers began releasing groups of passengers. Then one of the hijackers emerged from the door of the plane and waved a green flag, the emblem of Qaddafi, who made the banner Libya’s national flag during his 42-year rule.
Four hours after the plane landed, the last of the passengers were released and the two hijackers walked down the stairs to be arrested. Malta has not yet indicated what action will be taken against the men.
The hijacking underlines the chaos and upheaval that has stricken Libya five years after Qaddafi was overthrown and killed during the country’s Arab Spring revolution.
Attempts to introduce democratic government have floundered and the country is now split between two administrations — the GNA in Tripoli and the rival House of Representatives parliament in Tobruk.
Fighting flared this month for control of the key central oil ports, and with militia infighting a constant problem in Tripoli, many Libyans say life was better under Qaddafi’s dictatorship.
Sebha, where the flight and passengers originated, is home to Qaddafi’s tribe, the Qaddadfa. Last month six days of fighting broke out in the town between the Qaddadfa and a rival tribe, the Awlad Suleiman, triggered by a dispute over a pet monkey, which left 22 dead.
Most international airlines ceased flying to Libya when civil war broke out in July 2014 and Tripoli’s main international airport was destroyed by militias. Since then Libyan airlines have also been banned from European Union airports over security concerns.
The hijacking is only the latest violence to hit Libya’s troubled airline industry. On December 19, a bullet, apparently a stray from local intra-militia battles, hit an Afriqiyah Airways’ plane parked at Mitiga airport.
In September, an angry militia slashed the tyres of an Afriqiyah Airbus A330 at Mitiga, preventing it from taking off.
foreign.desk@thenational.ae