Hijackers of a Libyan airliner with 118 people aboard have surrendered to authorities following a standoff Friday morning on a tarmac in Malta. The Airbus A320 had departed Sabha in southwestern Libya late Thursday, and instead of flying its route to Tripoli at the northwestern border of the country, flew to Malta in the Mediterranean Sea and landed at the island’s main airport, according to news reports. Two men on board the Afriqiyah Airlines flight had threatened to blow up the jet with a hand grenade, according to the Times of Malta. They released everyone on board and surrendered nearly four hours after a standoff at the airport, the report said.
The pilot of the A320 had alerted controllers to the hijacking, then dropped off the radio, Reuters is reporting, quoting an unnamed official who said, “The pilot tried very hard to have them land at the correct destination but they refused.”It’s unclear what the men demanded, but they appeared to be loyal to a political party promoting the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, according to Reuters, referencing a Libyan television station that quoted one of the hijackers saying, “We took this measure to declare and promote our new party.”
