On November 23, 1985, a Boeing 737 aircraft lifted off from Athens, the Greek capital, and headed for Cairo, Egypt. As the plane flew over the Greek island of Milos, a well-dressed young man in the front of the cockpit suddenly stood up, pulled a pistol out of the plastic bag he was carrying, and aimed it directly at the stewardess on the side.
At the same time, another man shouted and kicked open the cabin door: "Don't move, hijack the plane!" The muzzle of the black hole held the back of the captain's head.
All the passengers were ordered to hand over their passports, and under the threat of gunpoint, they had to obediently cooperate and do as the gangsters demanded. However, when the gangster was collecting a man's passport, an unexpected situation occurred, the man suddenly pulled out his pistol and pulled the trigger at the gangster, and the gangster fell in response.
Seeing that some people resisted, the other gangsters quickly rushed up, and the man was unable to defeat the four hands with both fists, and finally fell unwillingly in a pool of blood. It was later learned that he was an Egyptian security guard.
Inside the cockpit, the leader of the gangsters ordered the captain to sail the plane to Libya. But at this time, the situation of the aircraft is not optimistic, in the melee just now, the bullets have penetrated the bulkhead, and the aircraft has lost its pressure.
The captain took emergency descent measures at that time, dropping the altitude from thirty-five thousand feet to fourteen thousand feet. In addition, the fuel of the aircraft is already insufficient, and long-distance flight will be very dangerous.
In desperation, the gangsters had no choice but to land at the nearest Valletta airport in Malta, refuel and make other plans.
However, the Maltese government, although concerned about the safety of passengers, agreed to the landing request of the aircraft. But when the plane landed, Malta's prime minister, Mintov, insisted on refusing to refuel the plane without releasing all the hostages.
This move directly annoyed the gangsters, who uttered harsh words: if the Maltese government continues to delay, it will kill the hostages one by one.
The Maltese authorities, on the part, did not heed the threat of terrorists, but instead demanded that the gangsters release the children on board, and after refusal, they categorically stopped providing food on board.
This move caused the cabin to explode in an instant, and the gangsters with bloodshot eyes decided to give Malta a little color, they pulled an Israeli woman out of the crowd, ignored her pleading, aimed at her head and pulled the trigger, followed by another one, "bang bang" a few shots and kicked her off the plane; then two Americans... The passengers were already frightened and did not dare to come out, waiting like wooden chickens for the god of death to land on their heads.
On the other hand, when Egypt learned of the hijacking of the plane, it immediately dispatched a C-130 transport aircraft carrying 80 heavily armed commandos to Malta. The Government of Malta was explicitly requested not to refuel the passenger aircraft and not to allow them to leave Malta, lest Egypt lose control of the situation.
At the same time, President Hosni Mubarak ordered the entire Egyptian army to be put on alert and sent additional troops to the western desert border area near Libya to prevent accidents.
On the morning of the 24th, C-130s arrived at Valletta Airport, where the command tower ordered them to land in a remote location away from the hijacked aircraft. On the plane, the terrorists were still flipping through a local passport, like a judge, whoever turned over would be shot.
The calls to the tower were conducted by the captain, and the terrorists were cunning and did not speak directly to them. Despite this, the captain did not dare to make the slightest change, because the muzzle of the black hole hole was always on the top of his head, and the terrorist leader spoke English. But he did not give up the opportunity to call for help, and the "roll call" in the cabin never stopped.
Finally, the opportunity came, and while the leader of the gangsters was going to the toilet, the captain immediately sent a message to the command tower: "Hurry up and take measures, they will kill us all!" ”
At 9:15 p.m. Cairo time on Sunday, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak finally gave the commando order to attack. Five minutes later, six commandos approached the target covertly, and in groups of two, they suddenly attacked the aircraft from three locations at the same time.
After an explosion, the warehouse was blown open by a large hole; the other two groups of members jumped from the front and rear hatches to the aircraft, and 90 seconds later, 6 commandos opened the passage and temporarily gained a foothold on the plane.
Just as a commando had just rushed into the cabin, the terrorists suddenly threw a grenade at him, and with a "bang", the commando was blown off a leg on the spot.
"Drop the cup!" The sound of gunfire in the cabin was suddenly loud, and the sound of explosions and gunfire intertwined, igniting the plastic equipment in the cabin and releasing a large amount of toxic fumes. Gunpowder and smoke caused many passengers to suffocate and faint on the spot.
The cabin was in chaos, and the terrorists mingled among the passengers and fought back desperately. The commandos threw rat traps, neither approaching nor daring to shoot casually, and the two sides were so anxious, although the commandos suppressed the gangsters, but the situation seemed to be getting more and more unfavorable to them.
On the other side, the captain was held in the head with a pistol until there was chaos in the cabin, and the gangsters who were monitoring him panicked slightly. The captain took advantage of the gangsters throwing grenades into the cabin to divert his sight, grabbed the fire axe next to him, who knew that the gangsters reacted very quickly, and immediately turned around and fired a shot. Saying that it was too late and fast, the captain could not care about the pain of being shot, and an axe was cut down, successfully cutting down the gangsters.
The melee in the cabin lasted about 5 minutes, and all but two terrorists were ambushed, all but the rest were killed, and the surviving passengers jumped from the emergency exit or the wings and out of the danger zone.
Of all the hostages, 8 were killed in the blast, 7 were killed by stray bullets, and at least 44 suffocated in the smoke, including none of the children on the plane.
The terrorists failed, but the hostage rescue operation was not a success, and afterwards, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said at a press conference: "We were forced to act to save lives..."
Ironically, what are the goals of this group of terrorists? What is the background? And what's the insider relationship? How do weapons come on board? The Egyptian side did not know until the end of the operation.
