EgyptAir hijacker arrested in Cyprus

Police arrested a lovestruck “idiot” who claimed to be wearing a suicide belt and forced an EgyptAir passenger jet to land in Cyprus Tuesday morning, government officials confirmed, ending a bizarre and frightening hijacking that stretched on for hours.

 

Officials in Cyprus said the hijacking was "over," with all the remaining passengers and crew freed. The country's president Nicos Anastasiades insisted it was not terrorism, with another government official saying the man "seems (to be) in love."

 

Officials reportedly said he demanded a meeting with his ex-wife, giving negotiators the name of a woman who lives in Cyprus and asking to give her an envelope. Witnesses told state TV he tossed a letter for the woman onto the tarmac, reports foxnews.

 

“He’s not a terrorist, he’s an idiot,” Egypt’s foreign ministry said in a statement to a Cairo-based journalist quoted by Reuters. “Terrorists are crazy but they aren’t stupid. This guy is.”

 

The hijacker forced the EgyptAir Airbus A320, bound from Alexandria to Cairo, to land at Larnaca airport on Tuesday morning. He initially released most of the passengers, but kept three as well as four members of the cabin crew for several additional hours, according to Egypt's Civil Aviation Minister. It was not known if the suicide belt was real.

 

Local television caught one of the last people to get off the plane escaping through a cockpit window. It was unclear whether that was a passenger or crew member.

 

The director of the Alexandria airport, Hossni Hassan, said there were 26 foreigners on board, including eight Americans, four Britons, four Dutch, two Belgians, a French national, an Italian, two Greeks and one Syrian. He said three other foreigners could not be identified.

 

Egyptian officials have identified the hijacker as Seifedeen Mustafa. An earlier name given for him was wrong. Officials in Cyprus would not confirm earlier reports from state TV that he demanded the release of women prisoners in Egypt.