Two hijackers diverted a Libyan commercial plane to Malta on Friday and threatened to blow it up with hand grenades before surrendering.
Via Fox News
No passengers or crew members were hurt following a standoff that began after the aircraft landed at 11:32 a.m.
One hijacker told the crew that he was ‘pro-Qaddafi,’ The Times of Malta reported, according to Reuters.
State television TVM said the two hijackers on board had hand grenades and had threatened to explode them.
Airport officials said the Afriqiyah Airways Airbus A320 flight from Sabha, with original destination Tripoli, had 118 people on board: Maltese Premier Joseph Muscat said that included 111 passengers, 82 men, 28 women and an infant.
Muscat had tweeted earlier that there was a “potential hijack situation” involving an internal Libyan flight that was diverted to Malta and that emergency operations were underway at the airport.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
The ‘religion of peace’ strikes again. I can’t think of anything more peaceful than to threaten to blow up an airplane full of innocent people, especially women and in this case the most innocent of society, an infant. We shouldn’t rush to judge other cultures or religions though because that would make us xenophobes and bigots which would be the real tragedy here.
Hijackers threaten to blow up Libyan plane diverted to Malta https://t.co/dDgXABeqTT pic.twitter.com/y80INWH2DX
— Fox News (@FoxNews) December 23, 2016