![]() Many of the passengers and crew were released during the early stages of the ordeal, Egypt’s Civil Aviation Ministry said.Įl Dibany told CNN in a phone interview that crew members didn’t explain at first why they were collecting passports, and the captain never gave an official explanation. Officials said earlier that as many as 82 people were on the plane. The Airbus 320 was carrying 70 people: 55 passengers, including the hijacker, seven crew members and, because it was a connecting flight, an additional eight crew members, according to EgyptAir’s Dina El Foly. After additional legal procedures, his sentence for forgery resumed on January 5, 2014, and he was released almost exactly one year later. Mostafa was sentenced to one year in prison for forgery, and escaped in 2011, according to the statement. ![]() The 58-year-old has a criminal record that includes “forgery, impersonation, burglary and drug dealing,” the ministry said. This is not Mustafa’s first brush with the law, Egypt’s Interior Ministry said. Cyprus has yet to receive an extradition request, he said. Mustafa is now being questioned by Cypriot authorities, who will levy charges against him, Zinon said. ![]() Authorities did, however, arrange for him to speak to his ex-wife, Mavrommatis said. One of his demands was that the plane be refueled so that he could travel to Istanbul, which was rejected, Zinon said. Zinon also said the hijacker was unstable. “He kept on changing his mind and asking for different things,” Mavrommatis said. Egyptian authorities negotiated with him, but Mavrommatis said his motivation was not clear. The hijacker was “unstable,” Homer Mavrommatis, director of the Cyprus Ministry of Foreign Affairs Crisis Management Center, told CNN. Man seen climbing out of EgyptAir cockpit window The hijacking was not related to terrorism, a spokesman for the Cyprus Transport Ministry said. The incident began when Mustafa allegedly hijacked the EgyptAir flight because of his ex-wife, officials said Tuesday. Shortly before news of the arrest, video of the aircraft, which was parked on the tarmac at Cyprus’ Larnaca International Airport, showed people leaving the plane, one through a cockpit window. #LarnacaAirport # Egyptair- Cyprus MFA March 29, 2016 Presidential spokesman Alaa Yousuf identified the Egyptian man as Seif El Din Mustafa.Īn early report that the hijacker was armed with explosives was false, said Alexandros Zinon, permanent secretary for the Cypriot Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “The hijacker has just been arrested,” Cyprus government spokesman Nikos Christodoulides said on Twitter, adding a few minutes later, “All passengers and crew are safe.”Ĭyprus state television showed video of the hijacker, wearing a white shirt, being led away by a phalanx of police. ![]() The incident ended relatively peacefully Tuesday when the plane’s crew and passengers left the aircraft and authorities took the hijacker into custody. “It was very horrifying to be in this situation,” El Dibany said. ![]()
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