Malta: Hostage-takers surrender from hijacked Libyan plane

 

 

Hijackers who forced a domestic Libyan flight to land in Malta on Friday have surrendered, Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has said.

 

The hostage-takers have been searched and taken into custody, he tweeted.

 

It follows the release of all passengers on board the Libyan state-owned Afriqiyah Airways plane, said to be carrying 118 passengers and crew.

 

It was on an internal flight from Sebha in the southwest of Libya to Tripoli when it was hijacked on Friday.

 

Maltese media reported that two hostage takers had threatened to blow up the Airbus A320.

 

The Times of Malta reported earlier that a hijacker told crew that he was“pro-Gaddafi”. The exact demands of the hijackers are still unclear.

 

Former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was killed in an uprising in 2011, and the country has been racked by factional violence since.

 

The tiny Mediterranean island of Malta is about 500 km north of the Libyan coast.

 

 

-- © Copyright Euronews 2016-12-24

Lock them up and throw away the keys

Doubtful that "I'm pro-Gaddafi" was ever going to work.

1 hour ago, petermik said:

Lock them up and throw away the keys

Nah, crime pays -

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Afghan_hijackers_case

4 hours ago, rooster59 said:

a hijacker told crew that he was“pro-Gaddafi”

So pro-death?

6 minutes ago, Srikcir said:

So pro-death?

Under Gaddafi the standard of living in Libya was relatively high. There was an excellent healthcare system and education. The streets were peaceful. Only problem was Gaddafi wasn't giving many lucrative concessions to the west, so of course he had to go. Contrasted to today with large swathes of Libya under ISIS control and the rest pretty much in anarchy. Life was better under Gaddafi, I dont care what the BBC and CNN might claim.

 Now as to these hijackers, they must be sent back to face the music. Giving them life on welfare and family reunification in Europe just isn't much of a deterrent. Funny that.

18 hours ago, jaidam said:

Under Gaddafi the standard of living in Libya was relatively high. There was an excellent healthcare system and education. The streets were peaceful. Only problem was Gaddafi wasn't giving many lucrative concessions to the west, so of course he had to go. Contrasted to today with large swathes of Libya under ISIS control and the rest pretty much in anarchy. Life was better under Gaddafi, I dont care what the BBC and CNN might claim.

 Now as to these hijackers, they must be sent back to face the music. Giving them life on welfare and family reunification in Europe just isn't much of a deterrent. Funny that.

 

Yes, things were better under Gaddafi but its not much of a contest when you are comparing his rule to that of Isis or the various militias that are constantly fighting for dominance.

 

As for the excellent healthcare and education systems you're having a laugh or you've never actually been there.

 

The state run hospitals were terrible, filthy places with hardly any medicine. The schools were run down and so over-crowded that they had to split them up into two sessions a day and share them between primary and secondary students.

 

As for Gaddafi not giving major concessions to the west, the biggest oil and gas operators in Libya during his time were either European or American - Eni (formerly Agip, both Italian), Repsol (Spanish), OMV (Austrian), Total (French) and Wintershall (Germany).

 

At the time of his death, the biggest oil company in Libya was Waha Oil Company (the company I worked for) and they were 41% owned by Marathon, ConocoPhilips and Hess (all American companies).

 

 

1 hour ago, nahkit said:

 

Yes, things were better under Gaddafi but its not much of a contest when you are comparing his rule to that of Isis or the various militias that are constantly fighting for dominance.

 

As for the excellent healthcare and education systems you're having a laugh or you've never actually been there.

 

The state run hospitals were terrible, filthy places with hardly any medicine. The schools were run down and so over-crowded that they had to split them up into two sessions a day and share them between primary and secondary students.

 

As for Gaddafi not giving major concessions to the west, the biggest oil and gas operators in Libya during his time were either European or American - Eni (formerly Agip, both Italian), Repsol (Spanish), OMV (Austrian), Total (French) and Wintershall (Germany).

 

At the time of his death, the biggest oil company in Libya was Waha Oil Company (the company I worked for) and they were 41% owned by Marathon, ConocoPhilips and Hess (all American companies).

 

 

Well said, and so accurate.

 I also worked for Waha Oil company years ago, and never saw the Libya written about by some people.

Jaidam mentioned that the standard of living under Big G was relatively high; he omitted to say that, for opponents of Gaddafi and his acolytes, the standard of dying was very high. 

Every time I and fellow expats went on field breaks, we carried a shopping list of items requested by Libyan co-workers; not fancy things, just normal everyday stuff that was unavailable to any but the Gaddafi clan and their thugs.

Do  like  Russia  did  long  ago  when  some  people  landed  a

hijacked plane  in  that  country.  The  passengers  and crew  were  let

off  first,  and  bussed  out  of the  area. Then  the hijackers  were  asked

to leave  the plane. They  were  then disarmed,  and  line  up  against  a  bus

then  all were  gunned  down.  Russia  has never  had  another  aircraft  that

was  hijacked  land  in  their  country.

Geezer

2 hours ago, elwood said:

Well said, and so accurate.

 I also worked for Waha Oil company years ago, and never saw the Libya written about by some people.

Jaidam mentioned that the standard of living under Big G was relatively high; he omitted to say that, for opponents of Gaddafi and his acolytes, the standard of dying was very high. 

Every time I and fellow expats went on field breaks, we carried a shopping list of items requested by Libyan co-workers; not fancy things, just normal everyday stuff that was unavailable to any but the Gaddafi clan and their thugs.

 

Absolutely.

 

At the risk of taking the thread off-topic I well remember bringing in every day items both for myself and the locals when I went out on break. I was town based so only got out once a year but visited the Waha 59 camp many times.

 

In the early days I can remember getting excited about finding every day items in what passed for shops. A light bulb, some cheese destined for Somalia and marked "a present from the people of Denmark, not for re-sale".

 

Anyone who thought it was good times under Gaddafi has obviously never lived there.

 

Weird thing is, it was actually getting better for a couple of years before the uprising and I really think that if Saif Gaddafi had succeeded his father it could of been a great place to live .

4 hours ago, nahkit said:

 

Absolutely.

 

At the risk of taking the thread off-topic I well remember bringing in every day items both for myself and the locals when I went out on break. I was town based so only got out once a year but visited the Waha 59 camp many times.

 

In the early days I can remember getting excited about finding every day items in what passed for shops. A light bulb, some cheese destined for Somalia and marked "a present from the people of Denmark, not for re-sale".

 

Anyone who thought it was good times under Gaddafi has obviously never lived there.

 

Weird thing is, it was actually getting better for a couple of years before the uprising and I really think that if Saif Gaddafi had succeeded his father it could of been a great place to live .

Yes, searching for basic items for ourselves; and when someone found something previously unavailable, other expats rushing to get some before it disappeared - memories...memories!

 

I also apologise for going off-topic, and happy that the Malta hijacking was resolved without any incident.