EgyptAir A320 hijacked.

The King of Dalriada

News reports of an EgyptAir A320 from Alexandria to Cairo has been hijacked. Now landing in Larnaca.

DOCARCH

Report (on RTE) that (some) pax are now being allowed disembark.

Hopefully an 'old style' ordinary decent hijacking, and, all will end without tragedy!

youreadthat

Old skool! Seriously though Egypt.... First the Russian plane now this....

DOCARCH

Reports now that all pax have been allowed off except 5 foreign/non-Egyptian pax, and, the crew.

roundymac

Reports are that he is a professor in vetenary science. has left almost every body off.

Strumms

12Phase wrote: »

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Logical thing would be to spray a large volume of foam into the engines asap just in case.

Yes very logical :rolleyes:. because that isnt going to piss off the hijacker at all to see that happening. Considering this highly volitile individual has possibly got an explosive belt and there are people on board as well as fuel and considering too that it isnt terror related.. just maybe it would be logical to attempt to talk him down ?

Shannon757

Could they storm the plane like in the old days?

Strumms

Unlike previous hijacks 9/11 etc i think from what we know it is safe to presume that this individual isnt a qualified pilot. Therefore for him to have any capability to crash the aircraft, use it in a missle in anyway or have any knowledge as to manouvering it or operating the systems on the ground or otherwise is slim to nil.

There are trained anti terrorisim negociaters and trained personnel who would have practised for this eventuality. I think you have been watching too many Die Hard movies

roundymac

Did he gain access to the cockpit? if he did it would be far more serious that just an ordinary hickjack as an earlier post stated.

Strumms

12Phase wrote: »

Well when you consider in Cork Airport they allowed a lunatic to drive around the apron under fuelled planes for about 20 mins before bringing it to any kind of stop.

Not all airport are LHR or CDG and many don't have all that much specialist anti-terrorist anything on the ground. You're talking normal ground crew and just airport police.

If someone had trained with a few flight sims online, they would be quite capable of starting the engines and doing a lot of damage on the ground at least.

All I'm saying is it would be a reasonable precaution to have a standard procedure in place to disable an aircraft on the ground if someone's taken it over. Even if that just means blocking the wheels.

I would assume the pilots can lock out the controls ?

Cork airport wasnt a hijack.. and the individual wasnt 'allowed' to drive anywhere and it wasnt anything like 20 minutes.

I can guarantee you that there would have been anti terror police on the ground to meet the aircraft.. do you seriously think the aircraft just dropped into Larnaca like you or I pulling into to the local Topaz unnanounced for fuel ?

Strumms

12Phase wrote: »

Ah look I give up.

I'm sorry I commented I withdraw everything and won't post again.

Everything in all airports is 100% secure and safe and perfect and the industry never makes any mistakes or accepts any commentary.

Ohh ok cheers..

Anyway to get back to it... the concern is as another poster said did he have access to the cockpit while the aircraft was in the air is what id like to know? Hopefully not.. Not to mention how he got passed screening in the first place... not a great advertisment for avoation security in that part of the world...

12Phase

I would assume given the tragic bombing of the Russian flight from Sharm el-Sheikh that crews might not necessarily have all that much confidence in Egyptian screening to start with.

While I'm sure it's improved, I could see why there might be doubts about it.

You could hardly expect a crew to be able to assess whether a threat is real or not in circumstances like that. Security risk is also particularly high given the recent Brussels and Pakistan attacks too and Egypt has major issues going on internally that would mean it's a little higher risk than a lot of places.

If someone makes that kind of threat, what could a flight crew do other than secure the cockpit and assume the hijacker isn't kidding.

Would the same rules in terms of cockpit locks and so on apply on an internal Egyptian flight though?

Tenger

As with all aviation incidents can we keep our discussion related to the known facts as reported to media sources. Speculation and wild theories doesnt help the debate. Remember that aircraft have been getting hijacked since the 1960's (and probably even earlier) there are procedures in place.

Any breaking news thread is a minefield of what ifs? and confusion, lets not add to it by jumping to conclusions or jumping at each other

12Phase

Well, according to CNN the only details are the hijacker's name and the fact that his motivation is something to do with his relationship with his ex-wife or estranged wife.

He was originally reported as a dual US-Egyptian national and that has now been corrected to Egyptian national only.

BBC is reporting the people still on board include the pilot and copilot, a female member of cabin crew and a security officer along with three passengers of unstated nationality.

Shannon757

Who claims to have a suicide belt

12Phase

Shannon757 wrote: »

Who claims to have a suicide belt

Mentioned on most media outlets, but unclear as to whether it's real or not.

Shannon757

12Phase wrote: »

Mentioned on most media outlets, but unclear as to whether it's real or not.

Just what I heard on the news on the radio

12Phase

Shannon757 wrote: »

Just what I heard on the news on the radio

It's as per the statements of the Ministry of Civil Aviation in Egypt.
The airline is also running a Twitter feed.

http://www.twitter.com/egyptair

Simon Gruber Says

There's a lot of conflicting reports. Some outlets are now saying that the previous story is completely incorrect and that the hijacker is requesting release of Egyptian prisoners.

12Phase

I'm sure we'll hear the full story later on. It looks like there's partial / confused information making it into the media at the moment.

At least the plane's on the ground.

edit:

Reports now are that he started out mentioning his estranged wife and has now added that he wants female prisoners released in Egypt.

The wrong person was also named in the media, so please do not name anyone as the sources are very confused at present.

Also, there's still no confirmation of whether explosives are real or just a threat.

Looking at how dodgy the information is, I think just wait for the dust to settle.

lambayire

Impressive escape out of the cockpit by (I assume) one of the crew.

Popped out of the cockpit window and climbed down by the handrails.

Irish Steve

Seems that the situation is over, and the hijacker is being processed by the security services, non violent outcome, all walked away from the aircrat. The only unknown is if there is any form of explosive device still in the aircraft.

Growler!!!

lambayire wrote: »

Impressive escape out of the cockpit by (I assume) one of the crew.

Popped out of the cockpit window and climbed down by the handrails.

Good drills on the escape rope:D

_Tombstone_

The security screens in the US are crap aswell, look up all the failed spot checks (I'm on phone) they miss knifes, guns I think I read aswell, all sorts.

Locker10a

How did this guy get into the flight deck ? I wonder was it purely by chance when the door was open ?

The King of Dalriada

Pat Dunne wrote: »

Have you actually transited through a US Airport post 9/11?

I haven't taken liquids out of my bag at any airport security check in about 3 years. Still haven't been stopped.

12Phase

Locker10a wrote: »

How did this guy get into the flight deck ? I wonder was it purely by chance when the door was open ?

Is it even clear that he did?

MillField

The guy was even searched going through security in Egypt:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fyype5W1QY8

_Tombstone_

Hostage Taker and Hostage take best buddies pic.

Inquitus

Looking at that pic you can't really blame airport security on this one, looks like a regular(ish) linen waistband for holding valuables and the like stuffed with some travel sized cosmetic containers and a random wire or two.

billie1b

lambayire wrote: »

Impressive escape out of the cockpit by (I assume) one of the crew.

Popped out of the cockpit window and climbed down by the handrails.

It was the hi-jacker who went out the flight deck window, he looked like a pro!

Growler!!!

billie1b wrote: »

It was the hi-jacker who went out the flight deck window, he looked like a pro!

Nope, it was a crew member. Video below:
http://www.independent.ie/videos/world-news/video-egyptair-hijack-moment-man-surrenders-at-larnaca-airport-34581249.html

Shannon757

So what's going to happen to this guy? Prison?

billie1b

Sources in Cyprus are saying the first two from the aircraft (walking the steps) were the crew, the hijacker used them as a distraction to get out the wondow and he tried to run across the ramp to escape before being detained. The dude coming out the window seems to be wearing the same attire as the hijacker was too.

Growler!!!

billie1b wrote: »

Sources in Cyprus are saying the first two from the aircraft (walking the steps) were the crew, the hijacker used them as a distraction to get out the wondow and he tried to run across the ramp to escape before being detained. The dude coming out the window seems to be wearing the same attire as the hijacker was too.

A sleeveless tank top? It's not in any of the pics. When he was apprehended he still had his light jacket on and light coloured shirt.


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billie1b

Growler!!! wrote: »

A sleeveless tank top? It's not in any of the pics. When he was apprehended he still had his light jacket on and light coloured shirt.


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I dunno, I have a friend over there in the army who was on the scene, he said it was the hijacker who came out the window. It was reported as that in the Cypriot media and the British media too. Maybe it didn't happen, im just going on what I was told