Afriqiyah Airways Flight 209
| Afriqiyah Airways Flight 209 | |
|---|---|
 The hijacked Airbus A320 in its old livery in 2007 at Lisbon Airport |
|
| Accident summary | |
| Accident type | kidnapping |
| place | Malta Airport , Malta |
| date | December 23, 2016 |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Airbus A320-214 |
| operator | Afriqiyah Airways |
| Mark | 5A-ONB |
| Departure airport |
 Sabha Airport
|
| Destination airport |
Tripoli International Airport
|
| Passengers | 111 |
| crew | 7th |
| Lists of aviation accidents | |
Afriqiyah Airways flight 209 (flight plan code: 8U209 ) was a domestic flight of the state-owned Libyan airline Afriqiyah Airways from Sabha to Tripoli , on which an Airbus A320 was hijacked on December 23, 2016 . There were 118 people on board the machine.
Flight history
The Airbus A320 took off at 9:30 a.m. ( UTC) from Sabha Airport for a 70-minute domestic flight to Tripoli. The aircraft was hijacked during the flight. It landed at 10:33 a.m. (UTC) at the airport on the Mediterranean island of Malta, off the coast of Libya .
Passengers and crew
According to the Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, there were 82 men, 28 women and one child and seven crew members on board.
Events
According to the Maltese government, the plane was in the control of two hostage-takers. They threatened to detonate a hand grenade on board the aircraft. According to media reports, they are supporters of the Libyan ruler Muammar al-Gaddafi , who was overthrown five years ago . They are said to have demanded that Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam be released in Libya. The release of Hannibal al-Gaddafi , who was held in Lebanon , was also demanded. Other media reports that the kidnappers were demanding the right to their own political party in Libya and asylum in Europe.
For reasons not yet published, the hostage-taking was ended on the evening of the same day when the hostage-takers gave up. The hijackers were arrested by the Maltese military and all passengers and crew left the aircraft. In a post on the social network Twitter , Malta's Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said that the weapons used by the kidnappers were only replicas .
Reactions
The affected airport was temporarily closed to other aircraft.
See also
Web links
- Route and dates of flight 8U209 at Flightradar24 (English)
- Aircraft accident data and report A320 5A-ONB on the Aviation Safety Network , accessed on December 27, 2016.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Libyan plane apparently hijacked to Malta. In: spiegel.de. Spiegel Online , December 23, 2016, accessed December 23, 2016 .
- ↑ Hijacked Libyan plane to Malta. In: sueddeutsche.de. Süddeutscher Verlag , December 23, 2016, accessed on December 23, 2016 .
- ↑ Hijacked Libyan plane. In: tagesschau.de. Norddeutscher Rundfunk , December 23, 2016, accessed on December 23, 2016 .
- ^ The case of Gaddafi's playboy son and the missing imam
- ↑ a b Hostage takers give up: Airplane hijacking in Malta ended. In: tagesschau.de. Norddeutscher Rundfunk , December 23, 2016, accessed on December 24, 2016 .