 SU-AYH, the aircraft involved in the hijacking, pictured in August 1984 | |
| Hijacking | |
|---|---|
| Date | 23–24 November 1985 |
| Summary | Hijacking |
| Site | Luqa Airport,Luqa, Malta 35°51′27″N014°28′39″E / 35.85750°N 14.47750°E /35.85750; 14.47750 |
 | |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Boeing 737–266[1] |
| Operator | EgyptAir |
| Registration | SU-AYH |
| Flight origin | Athens (Ellinikon) Int'l Airport |
| Destination | Cairo International Airport, Cairo, Egypt |
| Passengers | 92 (including 3 hijackers and 3 Egyptian Security Service officers)[1] |
| Crew | 6 |
| Fatalities | 60 (including 2 hijackers and 2 crew members) |
| Injuries | 34 (16 Filipino, 16 Egyptian, 2 flight attendants) |
| Survivors | 38 (including 1 hijacker) |
EgyptAir Flight 648 was a regularly scheduled international flight between AthensEllinikon International Airport (Greece) andCairo International Airport (Egypt). On 23 November 1985, aBoeing 737–266[2] airliner, servicing the flight washijacked by the Palestinian terrorist organizationAbu Nidal. The subsequent raid on the aircraft byEgyptian troops killed 56 of the 86 passengers, two of the three hijackers and two of the six crew.
The aircraft involved was a nine-year-old Boeing 737–266,MSN 21191,registered as SU-AYH, that was manufactured byBoeing Commercial Airplanes in 1976. It was equipped with twoPratt & Whitney JT8D-17 engines.[3]
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On 23 November 1985, Flight 648 took off at 8 pm on itsAthens-to-Cairo route. Ten minutes after takeoff, threePalestinian members of Abu Nidal hijacked the aircraft, the same group also responsible for the hijacking ofPan Am Flight 73 a year later. Theterrorists, declaring themselves to be Egyptian revolutionaries by the intercom, were well armed with guns andgrenades.
The terrorists' commander, Salem Chakore, proceeded to check allpassports whileOmar Rezaq went to the cockpit to change the aircraft's course. At the same time, Chakore had the European, Australian, Israeli, and American passengers sit in the front of the aircraft while the rest, including the Greeks and Egyptians were sent to the back. Chakore saw an Australian passenger, Tony Lyons (aged 36), holding a camera. Believing Lyons had taken a picture of him, Chakore took the camera and ripped the film out before slamming the camera into the wall. Chakore came to anEgyptian Security Service agent, Methad Mustafa Kamal (aged 26),[4] who reached into his coat as if to pull out his passport. Instead, he withdrew a handgun and began shooting, killing Chakore; he subsequently engaged in a shootout with the other hijacker, Bou Said Nar Al-din Mohammed (Nar Al-Din Bou Said). Nineteen shots were fired until Kamal and two flight attendants were wounded by Rezaq. In the exchange of fire thefuselage was punctured, causing a rapid depressurization. The aircraft was forced to descend to 14,000 feet (4,300 m) to allow the crew and passengers to breathe, with the oxygen masks deploying.
Libya was the original destination of the hijackers, but due to a lack of fuel, damage from the shootout and negative publicity, Malta was chosen. While approaching Malta the aircraft was running dangerously low on fuel, experiencing serious pressurization problems and carrying wounded passengers. However, Maltese authorities did not give permission for the aircraft to land; the Maltese government had previously refused permission to other hijacked aircraft, including on 23 September 1982 when anAlitalia aircraft was hijacked on its way to Italy. The hijackers insisted, and forced the pilots Hani Galal and Imad Mounib (both aged 39) to land atLuqa Airport. As a last attempt to stop the landing, the runway lights were switched off, but the pilot managed to land the damaged aircraft safely.
Breakdown of passengers and crew by nationality as perNew York Times.[5] A notable passenger was actressLupita Pallás, who, with her daughter Laila, were among the fatalities.[6]
| Nationality | Passengers | Crew | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Australia | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Belgium | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Egypt (including 3 air security officers) | 30 | 6 | 36 |
| Greece | 17 | 0 | 17 |
| Palestine | 11 | 0 | 11[7][8] |
| Philippines | 16 | 0 | 16 |
| United States | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Canada | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Israel | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Mexico[6] | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Spain | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Ghana | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| France | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Other (hijackers) | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Total | 92 | 6 | 98 |
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At first, Maltese authorities were optimistic they could solve the crisis. Malta had good relations with theArab world, and 12 years earlier had successfully resolved a potentially more serious situation when aKLM Flight 861, aBoeing 747–200, landed there under similar circumstances. The Maltese Premier,Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, rushed to the airport's control tower and assumed responsibility for the negotiations.[9][10]
The remaining two hijackers allowed medics and engineers to examine the injured and the damage to the airplane, respectively. The medics confirmed that the commanding hijacker, Salem Chakore, was dead while the sky marshal that killed him, Kamal, was still alive. In a rage, Omar Rezaq, who assumed command of the hijacking, shot Kamal again as he was led off the plane. Somehow, Kamal survived. The doctor told Rezaq the sky marshal was dead and was able to get him off the airplane.
Aided by an interpreter, Bonnici refused to refuel the aircraft, or to withdraw Maltese armed forces which had surrounded the plane, until all passengers were released. Sixteen Filipino and 16 Egyptian passengers and two injured flight attendants were allowed off the plane. The hijackers then started shooting hostages, starting with Tamar Artzi (aged 24), an Israeli woman, whom they shot in the head and back. Artzi survived her wounds. Assuming command of the hijacking, Rezaq threatened to kill a passenger every 15 minutes until his demands were met. His next victim was Nitzan Mendelson (aged 23), another Israeli woman, who died a week later after being declaredbrain dead. Mendelson realized what was to happen so she resisted. Rezaq grabbed her by the hair and led her out onto the staircase before shooting her. While tossing Mendelson's body down the stairs, he noticed Artzi move. He shot her through the back from the top of the stairs. Again, Artzi survived her wounds. He then targeted three Americans, having their hands tied behind them.
After the shooting of Mendelson, Maltese soldiers surrounded the airplane. Spotting them from the cockpit window, Rezaq demanded that the soldiers be withdrawn. Negotiators told him he had no choice but to surrender. Rezaq was informed that if the plane left Malta, American jets based in Italy would intercept and shoot down the plane. This enraged Rezaq.
By intercom, Rezaq had a flight attendant call forward Patrick Scott Baker (aged 28), an American fisherman-biologist on vacation. Rezaq stepped back when Baker locked eyes with him as he came forward. Tony Lyons, an Australian passenger who could see the stairs platform from his window seat later stated that he saw that Rezaq had to raise his gun in order to shoot Baker. The bullet grazed Baker's skull after he moved it at the last second but played dead. Rezaq pushed his body down the steps. Baker waited a few minutes before making a run for it, hands still tied behind his back.
Fifteen minutes later, Rezaq called for Scarlett Marie Rogenkamp (aged 38), a U.S. Air Force civilian employee. Making her kneel on the staircase, Rezaq shot her in the back of the head, killing her instantly. Her body was later taken to a hospital, where she was identified by Baker.
Jackie Nink Pflug (aged 30) wasn't shot until the next morning. Of the five passengers shot, Artzi, Baker and Pflug survived; Mendelson died in a Maltese hospital a week after the hijacking after being declared brain dead. For five hours, Pflug drifted in and out of consciousness until an airport grounds crew retrieved her body on its way to the morgue. They discovered she was still alive and rushed her to the nearby hospital.
France, the United Kingdom, and the United States all offered to send anti-hijack forces. Bonnici was pressured by the hijackers, the United States, and Egypt ambassadors, who were all at the airport. The non-aligned Maltese government feared that the Americans or the Israelis would arrive and take control of the area, as the U.S.Naval Air Station Sigonella was only 20 minutes away. A U.S. Air ForceC-130 Hercules with anaeromedical evacuation team fromRhein-Main Air Base (2nd Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron) nearFrankfurt, Germany, and rapid-deploying surgical teams from Wiesbaden Air Force Medical Center were on standby at the U.S. Navy Hospital atNaples.
When the U.S. told Maltese authorities that Egypt had a special forces counterterrorism team trained by the U.S.Delta Force ready to move in, they were granted permission to come. The EgyptianUnit 777 commanded by Major-GeneralKamal Attia was flown in, with four American officers. Negotiations were prolonged as much as possible, and it was agreed that the airplane should be attacked on the morning of 25 November when food was to be taken into the aircraft. Soldiers dressed as caterers would jam the door open and attack.
Without warning, Egyptian commandos began the raid about an hour and a half before it had been planned originally. They blasted open the passenger doors and luggage compartment doors with explosives. Fifty-two passengers – including pregnant women and children – suffocated from the fumes that enveloped the aircraft when the soldiers placed a bomb underneath the fuselage to break into the hold. Another five were shot by them. According to Dr Abela Medici, 2 kg (4.4 lb) of highly-explosiveSemtex were used, which provided more power than was necessary to allow the commandos safe entry into the airplane. Mifsud Bonnici stated that these explosions caused the internal plastic of the airplane to catch fire, causing widespreadsuffocation. However, theTimes of Malta, quoting sources at the airport, reported that when the hijackers realized they were being attacked, they lobbed hand grenades into the passenger area, killing people and igniting the fire aboard.[11]
The storming of the aircraft killed 54 of the remaining 87 passengers, as well as two crew members and one hijacker. Only one hijacker — Omar Rezaq, who had survived — remained undetected by the Maltese government. Rezaq came out of the cockpit only to be shot in the chest by a commando, throwing a grenade as he went down. Captain Galal subsequently tried to attack Rezaq with the cockpit axe, but Rezaq managed to escape from the aircraft. (The New York Times reported at one point, however, that the hijackers' commander shot Captain Galal, grazing his forehead, and Captain Galal hit the hijacker with an axe, then Egyptian soldiers shot the hijacker.)[12] None of the Egyptian commandos were killed but one had a leg blown off.[13]
Rezaq removed his hood and ammunition and pretended to be an injured passenger. Egyptian commandos tracked Rezaq to St Luke's General Hospital and, holding the doctors and medical staff at gunpoint, entered the casualty ward looking for him. He was arrested when some of the passengers in the hospital recognized him.[citation needed]
Rezaq was tried in Malta, but with no anti-terrorism legislation, he was tried on other charges. There was widespread fear that terrorists would hijack a Maltese airplane or perform a terrorist attack in Malta as an act of retribution. Rezaq received a 25-year sentence. For reasons unclear, Maltese authorities released him some seven years later, in February 1993, and allowed him to board an airplane to Ghana. His release caused a diplomatic incident between Malta and the U.S. because Maltese law strictly prohibits trying a person twice, in any jurisdiction, on charges related to the same series of events (similar to but having wider limitations compared to classicdouble jeopardy).[14][15]
Rezaq's itinerary was to take him from there to Nigeria, and then to Ethiopia, and finally to Sudan.Ghanaian officials detained Rezaq for several months, but eventually allowed him to proceed toNigeria. When Rezaq's airplane landed in Nigeria, Nigerian authorities denied him entry into the country and handed him toFBI agents departing for the United States.[15] He was brought before a U.S. court and, on 8 October 1996, sentenced to life imprisonment with a no-parole recommendation.[16]
The events of the hijacking were related in an account by American survivor Jackie Nink Pflug, who had been shot in the head, on theBiography Channel television programI Survived..., which was broadcast on 13 April 2009. Laurence Zrinzo, the neurologist and neurosurgeon who established neurosurgery as a subspecialty in the Maltese islands, performed Pflug's neurosurgical procedure. She related details about the flight and the attack in her 2001 book,Miles To Go Before I Sleep.[17] The incident was chronicled and reenacted in anInterpol Investigates episode,"Terror in the Skies", broadcast by theNational Geographic Channel.
The hijacking is recounted in detail by survivors and eyewitnesses in theDeclassifed episode, "Terror in the Sky: To Catch a Hijacker."
The hijacking is also the subject of the bookValinda, Our Daughter, written by Canadian authorGladys Taylor.
The events of the hijacking are described in and used to further the plot ofBrad Thor's novel,Path of the Assassin.
A similar situation appeared in the 1999 movieMummy byRussian director Denis Yevstigneyev. This is a movie based on the hijacking ofAeroflot Flight 3739 in 1988.
