EgyptAir Flight 648 was a Boeing 737 airliner hijacked in 1985 by the terrorist Abu Nidal Organization. The subsequent raid on the aircraft by Egyptian troops led to dozens of deaths, making the hijacking of Flight 648 one of the deadliest such incidents in history. EgyptAir (Arabic: مصر للطيران, Misr Lel-Tayaran) is the Cairo-based national airline of Egypt. ... The Boeing 737 is the worlds most popular short to medium range, single aisle, narrow body airliner. ... Hijackers inside flightdeck of TWA Flight 847 Aircraft hijacking (also known as skyjacking and aircraft piracy) is the take-over of an aircraft, by a person or group, usually armed. ... Created by a split from the Fatah in 1974, the Abu Nidal Organization (officially named Fatah - the Revolutionary Council) is an international organization named for its founder Abu Nidal. ...

The hijacking

On November 23, 1985, Flight 648 took off at 9pm on its Athens to Cairo route. Ten minutes after take-off, three Palestinian members of the Abu Nidal Organization hijacked the aircraft. The terrorists, calling themselves the Egypt Revolution, were heavily armed with guns and grenades. The Terrorist Leader then proceeded to check all passports. It was at this point that an Egyptian Security Service Agent aboard the plane opened fire, killing one terrorist instantly before he too was fatally shot. However, in the exchange of fire, the plane's fuselage was punctured, and the plane was forced to descend to 10,000 feet to avoid pressurization problems. November 23 is the 327th day of the year (328th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 38 days remaining. ... Year 1985 (MCMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link displays 1985 Gregorian calendar). ... Athens (ancient Greek: αἱ Ἀθῆναι (plural), evolving into the modern αι Αθήναι in Greek until recently, and η Αθήνα nowadays (IPA : singular see below: Origin of the name ) is both the largest and the capital city of Greece, located in the Attica periphery. ... Nickname: Egypt: Site of Cairo (top center) Coordinates: Government  - Governor Dr. Abdul Azim Wazir Area  - City 214 km²  (82. ... Created by a split from the Fatah in 1974, the Abu Nidal Organization (officially named Fatah - the Revolutionary Council) is an international organization named for its founder Abu Nidal. ... For other types of travel document, see Travel document. ... The fuselage can be short, and seemingly unaerodynamic, as in this Christen Eagle 2 The fuselage (from the French fuselé spindle-shaped) is an aircrafts main body section that holds crew and passengers or cargo. ... Wiktionary has a definition of: Pressurization Pressurization generally refers to the application of pressure in a given situation or environment; and more specifically refers to the process by which atmospheric pressure is maintained in an isolated or semi-isolated atmospheric environment (for instance, in an aircraft, or whilst Scuba diving). ...

Libya was to be the original destination for the terrorists; however, due to the negative publicity the hijacking would have had if flown to Libya and the fact that the plane did not have enough fuel to reach Libya, Malta was chosen as a more suitable option. The plane was now running dangerously low on fuel, experiencing serious pressurization problems, and carrying a number of wounded passengers; however, the Maltese authorities still did not give permission to the aircraft to land (the Maltese government had already refused permission to other hijacked planes before, such as on September 27, 1982 when an Alitalia aircraft was hijacked on its way to Italy and had asked permission to land in Malta). However, the EgyptAir 648 terrorists who hijacked the plane insisted, and they forced the plane's pilot, Hani Galal, to land at Luqa Airport in Malta. As a last ditch attempt to stop the plane from landing, the runway lights were switched off, but the pilot still managed to land the damaged aircraft safely. Fuel imports in 2005 Fuel is any material that is capable of releasing energy when its chemical or physical structure is altered. ... Look up aircraft in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... is the 270th day of the year (271st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday (link displays the 1982 Gregorian calendar). ... Alitalia - Linee Aeree Italiane (ISE: IT0003331888) is the national airline of Italy. ... EgyptAir (Arabic: مصر للطيران, Misr Lel-Tayaran) is the Cairo-based national airline of Egypt. ... For other uses, see Aviator (disambiguation). ... The old passenger terminal at Luqa Airport was converted into an air cargo terminal when the completely re-furbished Malta International Airportbecame fully operational in March 1992 The re-furbished Malta International Airport Still referred to by the locals as Luqa Airport, the completely re-furbished Malta International Airport in...

Stand-off

At first the Maltese authorities were optimistic they could solve the crisis. Malta had good relations with the Arab world and it had successfully resolved a potentially more serious situation 12 years earlier when a KLM Boeing 747 landed at the same place under similar circumstances. The Maltese Prime Minister, Dr. Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici, rushed to the airport's control tower and assumed responsibility for the negotiations. Aided by an interpreter, he refused to refuel the aircraft and to withdraw the Maltese armed forces which had surrounded the plane until all passengers were released. At first, 11 passengers and 2 injured flight attendants were allowed off. However, the hijackers soon started shooting hostages starting with Tamar Artzi, an Israeli woman. France, Britain and the United States all offered to send anti-hijack forces. Omar Mohammed Ali Resaq, the chief hijacker, threatened to kill a passenger every 15 minutes until his demands were met. His next victim was Nitzan Mendelson, another Israeli woman; he then shot three Americans, Patrick Scott Baker, Scarlett Marie Rogenkamp and Jackie Pflug. Of the five passengers shot, only Mendelson and Rogenkamp died. Map of Arab League states in dark green with non-Arab areas in light green and Mauritania, Somalia and Djibouti in striped green due to their Arab League membership but non-Arab population. ... KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (in full: Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij, literally Royal Aviation Company; usual English: Royal Dutch Airlines) is a subsidiary of Air France-KLM. Prior to its merger with Air France, KLM was the national airline of the Netherlands. ... The Boeing 747, commonly nicknamed the Jumbo Jet, is a long-haul, widebody commercial airliner manufactured by Boeing. ... Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici (also known as Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici; sometimes colloqially referred to as ZERO) (b. ... Omar Rezaq is the only surviving hijacker of EgyptAir Flight 648. ...

The Maltese prime minister was by now under heavy pressure both from the terrorists and from the United States of America and Egypt, whose ambassadors were at the airport. The non-aligned Maltese government was fearing that either the Americans or the Israelis would arrive and take control of the area, as the U.S. Naval Air Station of Sigonella was only 20 minutes away. When the U.S. told the Maltese authorities that Egypt had a special forces counter-terrorism team trained by the U.S. Delta Force ready to move in, they were granted permission to come. The Egyptian Al-Sa’iqa (Thunderbolt) 777 Combat Unit, under the command of Major-General Kamal Attia, was flown in, led by four American officers. Negotiations were prolonged as much as possible and it was agreed that the plane should be attacked on the morning of November 25 when food was to be taken into the aircraft. Soldiers dressed up as caterers would jam the door open and attack that way. Naval Air Station Sigonella, the Hub of the Med, is a U.S. Navy installation at an Italian Air Force base in Sicily, Italy. ... The 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (1st SFOD-D) —commonly known as Delta in the U.S. Army, Delta Force by civilians, and Combat Applications Group by the Department of Defense— is a Special Operations Force (SOF) and an integral element of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). ... is the 329th day of the year (330th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

The raid

Without warning, around an hour and a half before the planned time of the raid, the Egyptian commandos attacked the passenger doors and the luggage compartment doors with explosives. Maltese Prime Minister Bonnici claims that these unauthorized explosions caused the internal plastic of the plane to catch fire, causing widespread suffocation. On the other hand, the Times of Malta, quoting sources at the airport on the day, held that when the hijackers realized that they were being attacked, they lobbed hand grenades into the passenger area, killing people and starting the fire inside. Suffocation can mean two things: Suffocation, or Asphyxia, is a medical condition where the body is depraved of oxygen. ... A hand grenade is a hand-held bomb, made to be thrown by a soldier. ...

The storming of the aircraft killed 56 (out of the remaining 88 passengers) passengers, two crew members, and one terrorist. Only one terrorist still remained undetected by the Maltese Government, Omar Mohammed Ali Rezaq, who in fact survived. Rezaq the Terrorist Leader, who was injured during the storming of the aircraft, got rid of his hood and ammunition and pretended to be an injured passenger. The Egyptian commandos tracked Rezaq to St. Luke's General Hospital and holding the doctors and medical staff at gun point, they entered the casualty ward looking for him. It was not until some of the other passengers in the hospital recognised him that he was eventually arrested.

A total of 58 out of the 90 passengers had died by the time the crisis was over.

Rezaq was put on trial in Malta, yet with no anti-terror legislation, he was tried on other charges. There was widespread fear that terrorists would hijack a Maltese plane or carry out a terror attack in Malta as an act of retribution. Rezaq was given a 25-year sentence of which he only served eight. His release caused a diplomatic incident between Malta and the U.S., but he was eventually captured in Nigeria, brought before a U.S. court and sentenced to life imprisonment on October 7, 1996. is the 280th day of the year (281st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar). ...

Aftermath and criticism

Another face to the story was shown, in the book Massacre in Malta, by John A. Mizzi, who wrote that "Malta was faced with a problem it was ill-equipped to meet. The authorities took a firm stand in denying fuel to the hijackers but made no sensible provisions, through political bias and lack of experience, to meet the circumstances that arose from this decision. No proper team was set up at the outset to evaluate or deal progressively with the crisis, although only a few days previously an incident management course had been organized by a team of U.S. experts in Malta at the request of the government." The book continues to add that "The Egyptian commandos were given too free a hand and they acted out of their mission with little regard for the safety of the passengers. They were determined to get the hijackers at all costs and the Maltese government's initial refusal for U.S. anti-terrorist resources (a team led by a major-general with listening devices and other equipment) offered by the State Department through the U.S. Embassy in Malta - a decision reversed too late - contributed in no small measure to the mismanagement of the entire operation. The United States Department of State, often referred to as the State Department, is the Cabinet-level foreign affairs agency of the United States government, equivalent to foreign ministries in other countries. ...

Mizzi also mentions how the Maltese soldiers positioned in the vicinity of the aircraft were equipped with rifles but were not issued ammunition. Furthermore, an Italian secret service report on the incident showed how the fire inside the aircraft was caused by the Egyptian commandos who placed explosives in the aircraft cargo hold, the most vulnerable part of the aircraft, as it held the oxygen tanks which blew up. During the whole incident only the Socialist Party media and the State-controlled television were given information of sorts. Such was the censorship of information that the Maltese people first heard of the disaster through RAI TV, when its correspondent Enrico Mentana spoke the following infamous words live on air via a direct phone call: "Parlo da Malta. Qui c'è stato un massacro ..." (I'm speaking from Malta. Here there's just been a massacre ...)

Decisions taken by the Maltese government drew heavy criticism from overseas. The Greek government was angered by the outcome of the incident as “it expected the Maltese government to consult it before the commandos went into the attack”. Italian Interior Minister Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, queried the Maltese handling of the hijacking and questioned whether Maltese authorities should have tried to stop the plane landing by switching off the runway lights adding that “Not to give landing permission is a crazy risk”. He also questioned the Maltese method of negotiations saying that “a hijacker is not going to suddenly become a saint”. The fact that the Egyptian commandos had stormed the aircraft without the authorization of the Maltese Government and before special instruments had arrived from Italy to aid the attack showed that the Maltese Armed Forces had lost complete control of the situation at Luqa Airport. Baron Oscar Luigi Scàlfaro [skalfaro] (born in Novara, September 9, 1918) is an Italian politician and magistrate, member of the Christian Democracy, President of the Italian Republic from 1992 to 1999 and senator for life. ...

The United States protested to the Maltese government of the time about the U.S. personnel sent to resolve the issue having been confined to the Air Squadron HQ and the U.S. Embassy in Floriana. The United States had seen the situation as so ‘hot’ that it had ordered a number of U.S. Naval ships, including an aircraft carrier to move toward Malta for contingency purposes.

Five days after Flight 648's hijacking, evidence emerged of continued Abu Nidal activity on the island. On November 29, 1985, the Egyptian Embassy in Malta sent the Maltese Ministry of Foreign Affairs an urgent note saying that “the Egyptian authorities had received information that a terrorist group composed of 5 to 7 persons and belonging to the Abu Nidal Organization were about to arrive in Malta to assassinate Omar Mohammed Ali Rezaq, the only surviving terrorist who at the time was under intensive medical care at St. Luke’s Hospital. The Maltese government never produced any detailed report on the incident, with the only comprehensive account available coming from the Italian Secret Service. Abu Nidal in 1976 in a photograph released by the Israeli army, one of only a handful of photographs of him known to exist. ... November 29 is the 333rd day of the year (334th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1985 (MCMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link displays 1985 Gregorian calendar). ...

External links

• 1985: Commandoes storm hijacked plane
• After nearly 11 years, EgyptAir hijacker sentenced