Monday, 23rd November 2009 - 08:54CET
Deadly Egyptair hijacking in Malta recalled
Surviving hijacker Omar Mohammed Ali rezaq.
Today marks the 24th anniversary since the landing in Malta of a hijacked Egyptair Boeing 737 aircraft - an episode which ended with the death of 58 passengers two days later.
The tragedy started to unfold on a cold Saturday evening on November 23, 1985 when the aircraft was hijacked by the little-known Egyptian Revolutionary Organisation soon after taking off from Athens airport. A shootout took place in the air between the hijackers and a security guard, with the hijackers' leader being shot dead, as was the security guard.
The aircraft was diverted to Malta where it was parked in a secluded part of the airport. A request for fuel was denied. Negotiations started with then Prime Minister Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, who rushed to the control airport but the hijackers quickly made their intentions clear when they started shooting passengers - starting with Americans and Jews, and throwing them off the aircraft. Some survived, including Jackie Pflug who miraculously survived a bullet in the head after a brain operation by Maltese surgeons, who were widely praised.
11 passengers and two injured flight attendants were allowed off the plane but the hijackers then threatened to kill a passenger every 15 minutes.
A request for intervention by the US Delta force was refused by the Maltese authorities and the aircraft was eventually stormed by Egyptian commandos.
It was a bungled attack. The commandos placed explosives under the aircraft's oxygen storage tank and the resultant blast turned the Boeing into a fireball. The commandos fired in a haphazard manner and tens of passengers died - from smoke inhalation or bullets.
One hijacker, Omar Mohammed Ali Rezaq, was injured but survived and was only identified at St Luke's Hospital, where security officers had to intervene to prevent him being attacked by the Egyptian commandos there.
Rezaq was eventually tried and imprisoned in Malta and a diplomatic storm erupted when he was eventually released after serving his term. His flight to Africa was intercepted and diverted and Rezaq was arrested and flown to the United States, where he faced a fresh trial and was jailed for life.
see also
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090320/letters/stories-that-needed-telling
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Comments
Assaulting a hijacked aircraft is no battlefield, and requires precision, timing and accuracy, rather than blind bravery, which toy soldiers or not, the egyptian NCOs clearly did not have. This was an elite unit, but still at its 'infancy'. It is a recognised fact that with the arrest of the US personnel, the Egyptians lost reference, and this was one of the contributions to the massacre, and the rushness of all.
All the success assaults you've mentioned made use of sophisticated technological surveillance equipment which aided the attack, and meticolous planning. The same equipment that was denied in this hijack, due to misguided and ignorant political decisions. As I said earlier, if American instructors aiding the Egyptian team were ok for the Egyptian government, the Maltese government should not have interfered with this.
But the administration of the time, fortunately uneventful and now forgotten, wanted to show that it was more arab than the arabs. The only good thing in all this is that no Maltese got hurt.
But no argument in the world can relieve and absolve the administration of the time from part of the blame.
You're kidding....right?
Even just several months ago, Maltese embassies and the OPM lost a battle in digital terrorism.
And if tried again, they'd lose in mere seconds.
Security in Malta is a joke. Hint, does anyone care about security? No, you simply live in that little cosmos of yours. We'll see what happens when the next terrorists comes... Mark my words.
German authorities made a number of mistakes. First, because the army could not participate in the attempted rescue, as the German armed forces are not allowed to operate inside Germany during peacetime
, Schreiber stubbornly decided to continue with the rescue operation as planned, and important information could not reach the snipers since they had no radios. It is a basic tenet of sniping operations that (at least two snipers for each known target, or in this case a minimum of ten) should have been deployed to neutralize as many of the terrorists as possible with the first volley of shots.] It was this most basic failure of experience and technical foresight that led to the subsequent disaster.
Lets just hope we never have to see this kind of terrorism again especially in Malta.
Military units are not teams of football, apart from officers there are NCOs to lead and these are trained units not toy soldiers. A statement like yours means in a war situation if the officers are death the battle is won!!!!
Military interventions in such situation there have been spectacular rescues mainly by SAS, GSG9 and French Gendarmes but there were great fiascos as well, may I remind you what the German police blew up during the Munich Olympics Black September airport raid and lately the Russian Spetsnatz Elite Unit intervension on the Moscow Theatre ... no one can determine such delicate situation can end up!
The Malta incident still amaze me as the Egyptian's arsenal and bombs that were brought with them were not ideal for such a 'rescue' mission or else the storming intension was different? The breifing and plan of attack surely has not set up just before the time of attack. I think there are still many questions to be answered ...
It was like taking away the coach from a football team, before an important match, just because he is not of the same nationality. Strict diplomatic and political considerations, took over from the safeguard of human lives. Unnecessarily, and due to ignorance of the leaders of the time, for if US aide personnel were ok for the egyptian government, it should have been ok for the Maltese one, and something which the maltese government should not have interfered with.
The 'westernised' PN administration that followed, would not have been so obstinantly rigid, and less lives would have been lost, had the americans were allowed to do some guidance.
I can confirm that all Commandos who stormed the aircraft were Egyptians. There were two American Military Officers who travelled from Cairo with them and who certified the Egyptians as well trained for the operation who were physically at the AFM Air Squadron during the storming assualt.
The fact that they attacked the aircraft before the agreed time was possibly because they were afraid that somebody will come by surprise and take over the operation. Few minutes before they attacked the plane, Malta Radar detected unknown targets at close range to Gozo but flying at very high altitudes.
Their combat debut was a few years before Malta, if not mistaken an anti terroristic aircraft hijack in Cyprus which ended in a total fiasco. Contrary to many beleives these were not unexperienced but veterans. The plan of attack on the Malta event really conferm that their intension was clear just eliminate the opressors irelevant at the cost, the way they attacked the bombs used and not letting any Maltese interfer really gives an insight of their mission.
On the contrary all this hype of the what if the US Delta Force were used. From the track record of Delta does not really have a good history of missions that went well, just remember Mogadishu in 1991, poor inteligence and bad leadership.
Would be nice one day the Egyptian Army gives us the verdict of this mission as well.
Your last comments are unwarranted. No I do not claim any credit and I do not feel any guilt niether, as my presence at the Control Tower was in the normal course of duty that I was employed for, that is responsable for the good operation of the systems used at the Control Tower and in critical situations the sense of duty oblige you to be present at first hand all the time during the crisis. Their were no technical systems hitch-ups as my staff always done their duties and kept the systems well maintained. For this, yes I am proud of my staff who are still giving execellent service to the copuntry.
Maybe you are referring to Civil Servants who normally are in their officies in Valletta and on such occassion appears in places where they should not belong, such as Diplomatic persons that can give their contribution from any remote office, even if abroad.
The demand of the country at that time was NOT that we "had to be strong". The demand was that Malta's involvement in that hijack would not end as ignominiously as it did and with such a terrible cost of innocent lives all due to the bungling of the wrong people at the control tower throughout that operation and the exclusion of expert help that was at hand but was disdained in a mistaken attempt to appear "strong" as you put it. It only demonstrated our weakness!
In your comment addressed to J Farrugia you boast that you were somewhere in the crowd inside the airport control tower. Are you claiming some credit for the disastrous outcome? Did you consider your presence in the Control Tower more useful than that of the American hijack experts who were being segregated from the field of operations and who belonged to the same organisation that in August had been trying to teach you something about the subject? Do you think that your presence at that terrible cock up of an antihijack operation is something to be proud of? On his part KMB offered his resignation!
Can someone tell me, 'why was the request by the US Delta Force refused'? Was it because the MLP (then in government) where against the USA and their western allies and pro Arabs and communist countries?
I am really interested about this. As I have been hearing a lot about what happened in Malta in the 60s,70s, and 80s in this paper.
My family left Malta in March 1961 and with joining the Army just two years later I did not get to hear about what was happening over there, I am sorry to say.
No American was let near the scene by the Maltese authorities who handled the affair so .. let's be kind and say amateurishly, that a bloodbath was a forgone conclusion. For political reasons the most suitably trained people available, Delta force in this case, where NOT allowed to attempt rescue so it was left to what was little more then a group of thugs to do the job, bast ma 'ndhalux l-amerikani! What a disgrace!
"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." - Wikipedia
Personally I blame the Maltese authorities of the time.
"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." "Mizzi, J.A. (1989). Massacre in Malta"
I remember the remains too. It was dismembered on Park 2 and it did spend some time there. I don't think there were any useable parts from that carcass.
Following the comments below I'd like to make some points clear. The Egyptian Special Forces (777) needed leaders and advisers to follow. Back then their existence was very young and they had no previous experience. With out the much needed guidance they used what little skills they had but the implementation and application of those skills were all wrong.
- I don’t know if the Maltese Government had actually gave power to the Egyptians to act or were they called in to stand by until an ‘Authorization. To Act’ was given. It seems that there were instances that the Maltese Government had lost control of the situation, especially when the Egyptians went to the hospital looking for more terrorists.
- Communications are indispensable during such missions. For some reason there was no communications between the Maltese Government and the Maltese soldiers and the Egyptians. This was one factor that contributed to the chaos.
I believe the plane was eventually dismembered, packed into crates and sent off to be reused as spare parts. Of such is life.
The Egyptian Commands were trained and guarantteed to be professionals in the job by the American General who accompanying them from Egypt. They were under his training.
In fact what exactly happened was that the Egyptians went against the agreement with the Malta Government in two basic issues:
1. They gaurantteed that they will make a rescue operation and they doine exactly the opposite when they held the Maltese Fire Rescue Personnel at gun point not to start the fire fighting. The Egyptian's intent was to make sure that no hijackers escape so much so that they were shooting at every person who managed to escape from the aircraft. Some persons had shots at their back.
2. They started the assault (instead of rescue mission) more than 30 minutes before the agreed time, so the Maltese Rescue and Security Forces were not briefed of what was going to happen before hand as there was no time for the briefing.
In conslusion, the Egyptian Forces under the command of the American General did not stick to what was officially agreed.