Hijacked Egyptian airliner with 81 onboard lands at Larnaka Airport, Cyprus

An EgyptAir passenger aircraft en route from Alexandria to Cairo has been hijacked and has landed in Cyprus, according to sources in Egypt’s Civil Aviation Ministry, police have said, as cited by Reuters.

Hijacked Egyptian airliner with 81 onboard lands at Larnaka Airport, Cyprus

Hopefully this seems to end well since they are reporting about only one hijacker thought to be armed, and according to Cypriot state television, the plane has successfully arrived at Larnaca Airport in Cyprus.

a reply to: JedemDasSeine
I've been following this story and hope it ends well also, but

Cyprus official: Bomb suspected on board of hijacked EgyptAir flight - AP End of alert

No demands or communications by the lone armed hijacker have been released yet.

CNN : "The real questions are 'Who is the hijacker?' and 'What is the motivation behind this?'"

Top notch reporting there, guys.

a reply to: JedemDasSeine

G'Zus! I usually get a 7500 squawk ( pilot transmitting a hijack code. They're taking us alive ).

Good find👍

Edit.. on flightradar 24 now. MSR181. That's the plane. Alexandria to Cairo. Transmitter still on. Sitting at the very northwest end of the Larnaca airport. In an open area.

The Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation reports that 55 people are on board. There were earlier reports of more than 80 people on board.

BBC

Androulla Vassiliou ‏@VassiliouEU

Hijackers asked all police forces to leave the area in order to release women and children passengers.....

Hijacker or hijackers?


Also,

Apparently Egypt media is saying that there is 10 US citizens and 8 British on board. The Egyptian passengers have been set free?

-Hope for all their safety.

At this very early stage and with conflicting reports, it still sounds like a good old-fashioned Hi-jacking reminiscent of the 70's. Hopefully this means a relatively peaceful resolution is possible.

originally posted by: dreamingawake

Androulla Vassiliou ‏@VassiliouEU

Hijackers asked all police forces to leave the area in order to release women and children passengers.....

This is rather unusual, and i think it's a sign that the hijacker is not just an average terrorist who'd want to have as many casualties as possible.
I really hope the rest of the hostages will get out of this unharmed too.

a reply to: dreamingawake

Odd. ISIS usually kills women and children. So who is hijacking?

Leonidas.... yes very "TWA" like.



Transmitter is still on. Meaning the plane is still intact.

Replies above; Yeah this seems to be an odd one.
The translation from Egypt Air

#EgyptAir Updates: Negotiations with hijacker resulted in the release of all passengers except cabin crew and five foreigners. @EGYPTAIR

Cabin crew and five "foreigners" are still with the hijacker. Would assume then the US and or British citizens.

Other info is saying that all the US and British are still on board with the crew.

Just in: Egypt Air is saying 4 on board with the crew as well.

nvm posted above

This may have something to do with Turkish atrocities against its Kurdish population.
JusticeForKurds is my best guess.

This hijacking is to spread some kind of message or awareness?

Doesn't sound like he has a bomb, letting people go - makes me thing he got in deeper than he thought now he's trying to work his way out!

"Reuters, citing Egypt's Civil Aviation Ministry, reported that one of the passengers, who appeared to be strapped with suicide belt, threatened the plane's pilot".

Per Reuters above.
Yes HeX1an. Most hijackers would have just blown it by now. Kurds? Hmm, I see your point. This is very much for "Show/Awareness"

I don't want to sound like a broken record. But, transmitter still good.

Live Update Feed

The remaining passengers are all European.

www.bbc.com...

BBC just reporting that the Hijacker may be armed with a unconfirmed report of explosive, if that is the case serious questions regading egyptian security need to be asked.

Sounds like 15 passengers are being held with others allowed to leave, so my guess is that western nationals are the ones being held.

I wonder if they have access to the cockpit? as you would not want this plane to leave for another destination which would lead to all sorts of other issues.

With the holiday season just around the corner this is a a shore fire way of causing tension as being involved in a hijack situation has to be one of the worst situations to be involved in.



RA

Not sure if this is conected. But Cyprus has joint NATO bases in Cyprus.

en.m.wikipedia.org...

Edit. Britsh East Comand, near east airforce



Here's the plane via flightradar24.com

www.jetphotos.net...

originally posted by: Agit8dChop
Doesn't sound like he has a bomb, letting people go - makes me thing he got in deeper than he thought now he's trying to work his way out!

Possible but I'm wondering if he is waiting for more eyes on him before he does something horrible, almost like that movie the siege.

The hijackers name being reported is: Ibrahim Samaha.

Looking for connections and such now on the claimed suspect.


UPDATE:


Some info is being shared that the hijacker's the plane crew treated his "false threat" as serious. Well, what did he expect?! He wants a translator, political asylum, and the pages-as discussed on the following page- sent to his wife.

a reply to: thesaneone

Very good point, I hear that British nationals are being held and since there is a RAF base (Akrotiri) in Cyprus I would would be seriously looking at using special forces earlier rather than later to go in and kill this POS, as in recent years only one group is actively using suicide vests/belts. Obviously his would be after gaining intelligence from the passengers that where released..

See? sometimes negations and talking do actually work.
If this was America the subject would have being killed.