Life has an uncanny habit of being thrown into disarray without a moment’s notice. That is exactly what happened to passengers on a Boeing 737 who thought they would soon be disembarking at their destination… Jennifer Grech looks back to 1985

Although flying the friendly skies is statistically the safest way to travel, the feeling of helplessness that comes when there’s any hint of danger is quite unsettling.

Most frequent flyers have been on planes that encountered at least moderate turbulence, for example, and despite the fact that it’s not as dangerous as, say, an engine malfunction, most people can’t help but brace themselves for the worst possible outcome.

Now imagine that experience tenfold, with unpredictable hijackers hell-bent on making a political point to the world. Such dire situations can be difficult for the crew, passengers and law enforcement to handle, as evidenced by incidents which have been happening over the years – although admittedly not nearly as frequently as in the 1970s and 1980s.

Last month a Russian plane crashed in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. Islamic State immediately claimed responsibility for bringing down the aircraft, which broke up in mid-air, killing all 224 people on board.

Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to hunt down those responsible for blowing up the airliner, after the Kremlin concluded that a bomb had destroyed the plane.

The airborne terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon in the US on September 11, 2001, shook and saddened the entire world.

People cancelled holidays and even turned to rage against, and fear of, those who did not look like them.

Similar terror was experienced 30 years ago when EgyptAir Flight 648 was hijacked on November 23, 1985. Still remembered as the one of the world’s bloodiest and scariest plane hijackings, leaving 62 dead and 32 wounded, the events aboard that flight will forever serve as a reminder of how not to deal with terrorism.

In the months after I was left for dead on the tarmac, I was filled with fear

Through stories carried in newspapers and other media, I was able to piece together an account of the ordeal which years later still shocks the world, leaving serious questions unanswered.

Although it was a drama from beginning to end, there was a trio of miracles. Three of the passengers who had been shot in the head lived: Tamar Artzi, an Israeli woman who was nicked in the ear and Patrick Scott Baker, from White Salmon, Washington, who was only grazed by a hijacker’s bullet and has completely recovered.

Not so lucky was Jackie Nink Pflug, a special education teacher, who survived her head wound and surgery but is still troubled by traumatic memories.

“In the months after I was left for dead on the tarmac, I was filled with fear,” she writes in her inspirational memoir titled Miles to Go Before I Sleep.

Ms Pflug was shot in the head at point-blank range, rolled down a set of metal airstairs and was left for dead on the tarmac at Luqa Airport.

“I struggled to get back on an airplane. Each time I got on one, I walked down the aisle sneaking glances at laps to see if any of the passengers were holding packages that could be guns or grenades.

“It took me 11 years to forgive the hijackers of EgyptAir 648, 11 years of doing something every day, whether consciously or not,” Ms Pflug continues.

Ms Pflug told the Times of Malta a few days ago: “It’s hard to believe that it’s been 30 years.

“I will never, ever forget the bravery and heroism of all those who were on the ground at the airport and at the hospital that day. My heart goes out to them.

“Our lives were never the same, but I hope they found peace somehow. I will always and forever be grateful to them for saving my life at the foot of those airstairs.”

Flight 648 took off from Athens at 9pm on that fateful Saturday. A few minutes after take-off, three Palestinian members of a dissident faction calling itself Egypt’s Revolution brutally demonstrated their seriousness. The terrorists were heavily armed with guns and grenades.

According to the account of the Egyptian pilot, Captain Hani Galal, the hijack occurred about 25 minutes after leaving Athens, when the plane levelled off at its cruising altitude of 35,000 feet.

He said there were three people in the cockpit when the door burst open – himself, the co-pilot and a security guard.

The hijacker, whom he later identified as Omar Mohammed Ali Rezaq, held a live hand grenade to the pilot’s head. Capt. Galal recalled later there were no political statements, and the only demand was that he change course from Cairo to Malta.

“The plane is hijacked, change your course to Malta,” Ali Rezaq ordered.

As soon as the air crew realised what was happening, co-pilot Emad Bahey pushed an emergency button which alerted dozens of radio stations in the area.

Behind the cockpit, the passengers heard a voice speaking in English with what they described as a heavy Arab accent. The voice in the loudspeaker told them: “This is a hijack.”

They were warned to obey all orders, the first of which was to hold up their right hands with their passports. One of the hijackers walked up and down the aisles collecting the passports.

The first bloodshed occurred when one of the hijackers went up to a passenger sitting near the front of the plane, who was an Egyptian Security Service agent.

A 20-year-old Egyptian woman who was sitting next to the guard, Mustafa Kamal, recalled that he reached behind as if his passport was in his hip pocket, pulled out a gun and fired point blank into the hijacker’s face.

The hijacker was mortally injured but his companions shot and seriously wounded Mr Kamal. The agent survived only because the hijackers were convinced he was dead.

Witnesses testified that bullets were flying into the cockpit coming from the passenger cabin.

“One bullet smashed one of the thrust-lever handles and another broke the pressure gauge,” Capt. Galal said.

Two Egyptian flight attendants were wounded in the shooting. In the exchange of fire, the fuselage was punctured, causing decompression in the cabin.

“At that moment I was facing a very serious technical problem,” continued the captain.

He lowered the plane to 14,000 feet (4,300 metres) and oxygen masks were released.

A tense calm reigned for a while.

At 14,000 feet fuel consumption is much higher than at 35,000 feet, which made things critical.

Africa was the original destination for the terrorists, but due to lack of fuel Malta was chosen as a more suitable option.

The aircraft was now running dangerously low on fuel, experiencing serious pressurisation problems and carrying a number of wounded passengers.

Maltese authorities did not give permission for the aircraft to land.

The terrorists insisted, forcing the pilot to land at Luqa Airport. As a last-ditch attempt to stop the landing, the runway lights were switched off, but the pilot still managed to land the damaged aircraft safely. On the ground in Malta, the hijackers demanded fuel. When they did not get it, they shot two American and three Israeli passengers in the back of the head, three of whom miraculously survived.

Paul Mifsud, then Director of Information, said Egyptian government officials in Malta insisted with the Maltese government to allow them to storm the plane “because that was the only way out of this situation”.

Forensic expert Anthony Abela Medici believes the situation turned out the way it did because Ali Rezaq took over the hijacking operation after the leader of the terrorists was killed during the shoot-out with Mr Kamal.

The Maltese government was all the time very much concerned about the fate of the passengers, and in fact it had repeatedly insisted with the hijackers that they should release the passengers and they would get the fuel they wanted.

After hours of negotiations, Egyptian commandos boarded the aircraft determined to kill the hijackers, who detonated several hand grenades when they spotted the troops.

Incendiary grenades caused a fire inside the plane and smoke filled the cabin as passengers frantically tried to get out, some rushing straight into the line of fire being exchanged between the Egyptian commandos and the hijackers.

The Egyptian troops blew open the cargo section door to facilitate their entry in the plane and in the process a good part of the cabin floor caved in.

In the meantime other men stormed the plane from the overwing hatches and seconds later another unit tried to open the front and rear doors.

The hijack ended 24 hours after it began in a blazing inferno and machine-gun fire on the tarmac of the usually tranquil Luqa Airport.

As investigators milled about on the airport tarmac, police and rescuers sifted through the fuselage for victims, their possessions and any clue that might help explain what had happened aboard the aircraft. Occasionally, a stretcher shrouded in plastic would emerge, a macabre reminder that the severely-damaged, ill-fated jetliner had become a tomb for 62 innocent travellers.

Only one hijacker survived the commando raid. Ali Rezaq, the man who allegedly shot the five passengers while demanding fuel, pleaded guilty on November 2, 1988 and was arraigned in court in Malta. He was sentenced to 25 years in jail, but was released after serving just seven years and flown out of Malta.

He was later arrested in Nigeria and turned over to the FBI, and is now serving life in the US after being found guilty of one count of air piracy.

Charred doors ajar and its windows darkened by soot, the burned-out hulk of the Boeing 737 was all that remained of EgyptAir Flight 648. It sat on the tarmac at Malta’s only airport for quite some time, a sombre reminder of such a dark episode in civil aviation history.

The 1985 EgyptAir hijack will be the topic of discussion in Times Talk, on TVM tomorrow at 10.05pm.