EgyptAir Flight 648 - Standoff

Standoff

At first, Maltese authorities were optimistic they could solve the crisis. Malta had good relations with the Arab world, and 12 years earlier had successfully resolved a potentially more serious situation when a KLM Boeing 747 landed there under similar circumstances. The Maltese prime minister, Dr. Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, rushed to the airport's control tower and assumed responsibility for the negotiations. Aided by an interpreter, he refused to refuel the aircraft and to withdraw the Maltese armed forces which had surrounded the plane until all passengers were released. Eleven passengers and two injured flight attendants were allowed off. The hijackers then started shooting hostages, starting with Tamar Artzi, an Israeli woman. France, Britain and the United States all offered to send anti-hijack forces. Rezaq, the chief hijacker, threatened to kill a passenger every 15 minutes until his demands were met. His next victim was Nitzan Mendelson, another Israeli woman. He then shot three Americans - Patrick Scott Baker, Scarlett Marie Rogenkamp and Jackie Nink Pflug. Of the five passengers shot, Artzi, Pflug and Baker survived.

Mifsud Bonnici was by now under heavy pressure both from the terrorists and from the United States and Egypt, whose ambassadors were at the airport. The non-aligned Maltese government feared that either the Americans or the Israelis would arrive and take control of the area, as the U.S. Naval Air Station Sigonella was only 20 minutes away. A U.S. Air Force C-130 Hercules with an aeromedical evacuation team from Rhein-Main Air Base (2nd Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron) near Frankfurt, Germany, and rapid-deploying surgical teams from Wiesbaden Air Force Medical Center were on standby at the U.S. Navy Hospital at Naples. When the U.S. told Maltese authorities that Egypt had a special forces counterterrorism team trained by the U.S. Delta Force ready to move in, they were granted permission to come. The Egyptian Al-Sa'iqa (Thunderbolt) unit — Task Force 777, under the command of Major-General Kamal Attia — was flown in, led by four American officers. Negotiations were prolonged as much as possible, and it was agreed that the plane should be attacked on the morning of November 25 when food was to be taken into the aircraft. Soldiers dressed up as caterers would jam the door open and attack that way.