23rd/24th November 1985 - An Egypt Air Boeing 737 with 98 passengers and crew on board is hijacked and lands in Malta for refuelling which the Maltese government refuses to do. After 13 people are released and 5 people executed by the 3 terrorists of the Abu Nidal group, Egyptian special forces storm the plane. All terrorists and 56 passengers and crew members are killed.
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This is about the Egypt Air Hijack which happened on 24th November 1985. EgyptAir Flight 648, a Boeing 737-200 SU-AYH with 98 passengers and crew on board left Athens on its route to Cairo. After the plane have reported reaching cruising level and the Seat Belts signs were switched off, three well-dressed men stood up, got their guns out and ordered the passengers not to move. One of the three men proceeded to the cockpit and forced Captain Hani Galal to head the plane to Malta. This will take two or three issues to cover some very important points which I believe until now where not made public. It is important that some facts are made known as the general opinion both locally and international blames the local authorities for the fiasco result of the whole operation.
In my opinion this Hijack was a particular one not only because of the disastrous ending of the saga and the high toll of victims, but because it had some peculiar characteristics and events that some of them might have not been made public as yet. As I was directly involved in the overall operation as a technical advisor to the Prime Minister of the day, Dr Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici and his Cabinet I still memorise some vital and important issues that made this hijack a different and peculiar one from all other hijacks, both in Malta and abroad.
First of all, personally and possible other members of the Security Forces were expecting this hijack and we had the feeling that it will be a difficult operation. This is because, during the summer of the same year, members of the Security Forces and Civil Aviation participated in a crash course about ‘Crisis Management’ with special reference to Hijack Operations which was provided by the US Security Officials from the FBI and State Department, where we were given “between the lines” hints that before the end of the same year we will have to prove what we have learnt. On individual level I had informal conversations with some these officials that gave me enough reasons to believe that the US Intelligence knew more than something about the possibility of this hijack. Most of what was said I cannot mention due to professional ethics and security reasons, but to say the least, Greece was mentioned as the origination country for our next possible hijack operation. At that time most of what was said was slightly hard to believe, but after the EgyptAir hijack all things fell in place and therefore I strongly believe that the US Intelligence had some good and reliable informers.
What made this hijack a particular and more difficult operation?
First of all, on the first radio contact that the crew made with Malta ATCC, we were informed that there had already been a struggle onboard between the Hijackers and the EgyptAir Security people on the plane and possible there was at least one victim. This happened when the plane was within the Malta Flight Information region, and as such, a crime had already taken place on Maltese territory. This in itself had already placed the Malta Government in a very difficult situation and legally it was its responsibility to make Justice with the offenders. Therefore, in this case, the Malta Government could not have refused landing permit to the plane to pass the problems to other countries, but legally was obliged to give the landing facilities and do its best to have the offenders under its custody and make them go through the usual justice procedures under the Maltese Law. Usually, landing permits are not given for hijacked aircraft and all measures are taken to physically block the runways by heavy vehicles and also switch off all Navigational Aids so that the plane has no instrumental guidance for the approach and landing procedures. This is normally done until it is verified that if landing permit is still withheld the safety of the passengers and crew is jeopardise due to insufficient fuel to divert to another airport. One way to verify the fuel endurance is by direct contact with the airline representative to get information of the fuel load which was given to the plane before it took-off and the flying duration which had been expired by the time plane reached Malta.
Nevertheless, initially the aircraft was refused landing clearances, and after some time on the insistence of the aircraft captain, we removed the physical obstructions on the runway and allowed the plane to land at the discretion of the Captain in command of the plane.
So even before it landed the Malta Government had a ‘hot-potato’ in his hand, due to the very possibility that a crime has been committed in its territory.
Even before the plane landed, the Prime Minister, members of his Cabinet, the Egyptian and American Ambassadors and other Maltese and foreign diplomats were already at Luqa ATCC. Of course present also were the heads of the Maltese Security Forces of the Police and the Army.
From the beginning, we could sense from the radio conversations between the Captain and us, that the situation onboard the plane was very tense and something more serious than other hijacks we went through was in the air. On the first conversations with the Hijackers we also sensed that they were professional terrorists and they meant business, they were very aggressive in the way they communicated with us and sounded very determined. During the first Briefing meeting with the PM and the Cabinet members present, which I clearly remember present Mr Lorry Sant and Dr Alex Sciberras Trigona, who were the Ministers responsible for the Security Forces and Foreign Office respectively, I expressed my opinion that we have a hard nut to crack as all indications leads me to believe that it was a professional job by well trained terrorists.
Within the first half hour, the Maltese Authorities already had a good idea which organisation was behind the hijack and thus realised the gravity of the situation. Immediately it was decided that this hijack had to be resolved here and in no way fuel and departure clearance were to be given, mainly due to the fact of the possibility of the murder of person or persons which had already happened on Maltese Territory. Thus, the Malta Government started the negotiations with a handicap.
It did not take much time until the Malta Government decided to give permit to the Egyptian Rescue Forces to make their way to Malta to discuss and prepare for a Rescue Operation, just in case matters started to get out of control.
The Egyptian Rescue Forces were known as the Egypt’s Task Force 777 which was set up in 1977 and had their ‘baptism of fire’ in the Libyan desert without any experience and little organization. In 1978 they were dispatched to assault an airplane hijacked by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and flown to Cyprus. They had no time to make a proper plan and they had to plan their mission on the one-hour trip time from Egypt to Cyprus. To make things worst the Egyptian Authorities failed to inform the Cyprus authorities of their imminent arrival, and all appeared that they were intending to make an ‘Entebbe’ style mission either to show off or to prove that they are as good as the Israeli’s Entebbe mission or the German mission at Mogadish in 1977. The result was that the Cyprus police and Security forces thought that they were a reinforcement terrorist and an 80-minute firefight took place between the Cyprus Security Forces and the TF777. This cost them the lives of 15 of its members. With this background the Maltese Authorities were very reluctant to give them permission for storming the plane but it was decided that it was better to be available at hand as it was clearly decided by the cabinet that we did not want any Maltese citizens fighting other peoples fights and were not ready to jeopardise the lives of our Security Forces personnel unless as a last resort.
With this in mind various discussions took place between the Prime Minister and his Cabinet members, the Egyptian and American Ambassadors, the TF777 Commander, the two US Army Generals who came with the Egyptian TF77 as their advisors. I was present in all discussions. On our side we did not mince our words and we made it obvious that we have our doubts about a Storming Mission for rescuing the hostages. The American Advisors insisted many times that they have had intensive training and at that time the FT777 were well prepared for such a mission. The Maltese authorities were playing for time to see how things would develop as they were still not convinced of the success of a storming mission.
In the meantime, things were getting more critical on the plane as even with all the negotiations which were taking place between the Senior Air Traffic Controller and the Terrorists, mainly to play for time as it was political decided that there will be no refuelling, the terrorists proceeded with their plans and were taking certain steps that puts the Maltese Government in a very awkward diplomatic position vis-à-vis the Governments of the different nationalities which were held hostages.
Next week I will continue and give some details of the tactical steps which were being taken by the hijackers to put diplomatic and political pressure on the Maltese Government in order to reach their goals.
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On November 23, at 19:35 the EgyptAir Boeing 737 was hijacked by 3 men. The Egyptian security guard who was onboard shot and killed one of the hijackers before being shot and wounded himself, along with two flight attendants. Although the hijackers demanded to be flown to Tunesia or Libya, they agreed to land at Malta for refueling were it landed at 21:15. At Malta, the two wounded cabin crew members were released, along with 11 women. Because Maltese authorities refused to refuel the plane unless all passengers were released, the hijackers threatened to kill a passenger every 10 minutes. A total of 5 additional people were shot and thrown off the aircraft, two of them were killed. After 22 hours of negotiation the plane was stormed by Egyptian forces. In the fight which followed hand grenades were thrown into the passenger cabin, causing a fire.
