Maltese authorities' bungling led to Egyptair massacre

Steve Mallia's report in M Magazine (distributed with The Sunday Times of September 25) on the Egyptair hijack of 20 years ago revives with accuracy one of the worst episodes in aviation history.

In his interview with the then prime minister, Dr Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, puts the blame fairly and squarely on the Egyptian commandos. I beg to differ.

In the foreword to my book Massacre in Malta I wrote: "Malta was faced with a problem it was ill-equipped to meet. The authorities took a firm stand to deny 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 organised by a team of American experts in Malta at the request of the government.

"The Egyptian commandos were given too free a hand and they acted out their mission with little regard for the safety of the passengers. They were determined to get the hijackers at all costs and they came at dawn, let rip and left like ghosts in the night. The government's initial refusal of assistance from the United States anti-terrorist resources - a decision reversed too late - contributed in no small measure to the mismanagement of the entire operation..."

The Egyptian commandos were being trained by an American anti-terrorist team and three of them came with them. They were accosted by Maltese soldiers and the American officer in charge, a major-general, was held throughout at the helicopter flight base at Luqa unable to communicate with the Egyptians. The two others were ordered to change their combat dress for civilian clothes and packed off to the American Embassy in Floriana and not allowed to move from there. By this time American listening devices and other equipment were on standby in Sicily ready to be flown to Malta.

The State Department in Washington continued to offer assistance through the American Embassy but this was refused - until too late.

Left to their own resources, with the impression that they had an open ticket to attack the aircraft, the Egyptians took matters into their own hands at the time that the Maltese authorities had finally realised they were out of their depth and decided to let the equipment be flown from Sigonella on condition this was flown over not by the Americans but in an Italian air force helicopter. The Italians wanted the request to be made in writing and there was further delay to search for a typewriter.

The authorities agreed to the storming of the aircraft expecting the Egyptians to await instructions but these immediately took position round the aircraft and under it. Here they placed explosives in the cargo hold, the most vulnerable part of the aircraft, where there were oxygen tanks which blew up.

One must also mention that the Maltese soldiers positioned in the vicinity of the aircraft had rifles but were not issued with bullets.

The whole matter was badly handled and the utter lack of control by the Maltese authorities came when the Egyptians stormed the aircraft. Only the Union Press newspapers and Malta Television, under state control, were being given information of sorts. An indication of how utterly misinformed these were came when the Commissioner of Police, John Cachia, told the local television, as the Egyptians attacked, that all the passengers had been freed. The station interrupted the programmes to announce this!

The Maltese people first heard of the disaster through RAI TV, as its correspondent Enrico Mentana received a direct telephone call live on air. I was with him and whispered in his ear that some 50 persons had been killed. He said on air: "Parlo da Malta. Qui c'é stato un massacro..."

Major General Kamal Attia, who led the 25 Egyptian commandoes, told me later: "With the help of the Americans and with special equipment the assault would have been successful."

Of interest is the fact that this was the last aircraft hijacking to be carried out by Palestinian terrorists.