Browse content similar to 29/03/2016. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Good morning. It is Tuesday, 9am and I'm Victoria Derbyshire, welcome to | :00:09. | :00:15. | |
the programme. Breaking news, and Egypt air passenger plane has been | :00:16. | :00:19. | |
hijacked and forced to land in Cyprus. The suicide bomber is | :00:20. | :00:24. | |
thought to have a suicide vest on him or with him. All the passengers | :00:25. | :00:27. | |
have been released except for seven members of the group and four | :00:28. | :00:33. | |
non-Egyptians. According to one Cypriot newspaper, three British | :00:34. | :00:36. | |
people are thought to be still on board will stop that is unconfirmed. | :00:37. | :00:38. | |
We will bring you all the details. Breaking News this morning is that | :00:39. | :01:00. | |
Egyptair says one of its planes has been hijacked and forced to land at | :01:01. | :01:06. | |
Larnaca in Cyprus. The hijacker is believed to be strapped with | :01:07. | :01:11. | |
explosives. Egyptair says all passengers on board, barring four | :01:12. | :01:14. | |
foreigners and seven members of crew, have now been released. | :01:15. | :01:19. | |
There are unconfirmed reports three Britons are still on board. | :01:20. | :01:21. | |
The Foreign Office has said it is working to establish | :01:22. | :01:23. | |
if there are any Britons among the passengers. | :01:24. | :01:31. | |
The flight took off from Saudi Arabia and was taken over as it flew | :01:32. | :01:39. | |
from Alexandria en route to the Egyptian capital, Cairo. It is now | :01:40. | :01:42. | |
on the ground at Larnaca airport in Cyprus. Egyptair sent out a tweet | :01:43. | :01:47. | |
this morning announcing one of their planes had been hijacked. Here it | :01:48. | :01:51. | |
is,... That was about an hour and 20 | :01:52. | :01:59. | |
minutes or so ago. With us now is the BBC's | :02:00. | :02:02. | |
correspondent in Cairo Ranyah Sabry. What do you know what this stage? | :02:03. | :02:14. | |
The Egyptair flight took off from an International Airport in Saudi | :02:15. | :02:18. | |
Arabia heading to the Egyptian capital Cairo via Alexandria. It | :02:19. | :02:24. | |
landed in exciting and -- in Alexandria, where scores of | :02:25. | :02:29. | |
Egyptians got off. It took off again, supposedly to Cairo, it was | :02:30. | :02:33. | |
redirect it to Cyprus and landed there. The Cypriot officials were | :02:34. | :02:37. | |
the first to announce that the plane was hijacked, supposedly at 5:30am | :02:38. | :02:42. | |
GMT. It is not clear whether the hijacker got on in Alexandria or | :02:43. | :02:48. | |
initially in Saudi Arabia, and whether he has a suicide belt or | :02:49. | :02:53. | |
not, an explosive out. He claims to be armed, he told the pilot that he | :02:54. | :02:59. | |
had an explosive belt, it has not been confirmed so far. But the pilot | :03:00. | :03:04. | |
took his word and redirected the plane. Initially, the hijacker | :03:05. | :03:08. | |
requested to go to Turkey, but the pilot said the fuel was not enough | :03:09. | :03:13. | |
to fly out there, which is why he picked Cyprus as an alternative | :03:14. | :03:19. | |
route. Reports the hijacker is asking for asylum in Cyprus. In | :03:20. | :03:25. | |
terms of those passengers still on board and the crew still on board, | :03:26. | :03:30. | |
and those that have been released, tell us the differences between them | :03:31. | :03:36. | |
at this stage, as far as we know? It is believed that all Egyptian | :03:37. | :03:38. | |
passengers have been allowed to leave the plane, who is left on the | :03:39. | :03:46. | |
plane is the crew, seven Egyptian members, employees of Egyptair, in | :03:47. | :03:51. | |
addition to four non-Egyptian 's. Their nationalities are not clear at | :03:52. | :03:58. | |
the moment, apart from seeking asylum in the hijacker has not made | :03:59. | :04:03. | |
any claims or requests and no entity has claimed responsibility so far | :04:04. | :04:07. | |
for the accident. It is a bit ambiguous and it is the only demand | :04:08. | :04:15. | |
of the hijacker, just to seek asylum in a country different to his | :04:16. | :04:19. | |
homeland, Egypt. We are looking for more details or a claim of | :04:20. | :04:23. | |
responsibility. The Egyptian officials have endorsed the fact | :04:24. | :04:26. | |
that the plane has been hijacked, they say they are looking into the | :04:27. | :04:30. | |
situation and cooperating with the crisis team in Cyprus, but nothing | :04:31. | :04:34. | |
more is clear. In terms of this man asking for asylum, I am reading this | :04:35. | :04:40. | |
on wires, it is being reported by the French news agency AFP, the man, | :04:41. | :04:46. | |
who is not Egyptian, asked for a translator to press his demand, and | :04:47. | :04:49. | |
there are no further details of what else he might want. He apparently | :04:50. | :04:57. | |
has demanded asylum on Cyprus. Exactly. The fact that he is not | :04:58. | :05:01. | |
Egyptian, this is not very clear. According to the name circulated at | :05:02. | :05:05. | |
the moment, he could very well be Egyptian, it is a very ordinary | :05:06. | :05:10. | |
Egyptian name, had he needed a translation into English or to speak | :05:11. | :05:14. | |
to the Cypriot officials. Apart from the asylum he has not so far as | :05:15. | :05:19. | |
anything else. All the passengers who left the plane were not harmed. | :05:20. | :05:23. | |
According to images we have seen of the plane in the airport, the | :05:24. | :05:27. | |
hostess walked the passengers out of the plane, she stood at the top of | :05:28. | :05:33. | |
the stairs looking at them, which seemed to be comparatively composts. | :05:34. | :05:38. | |
She was composed, having been in this situation for a fewer hours -- | :05:39. | :05:42. | |
seems to be comparatively composed. Nobody knows how grave all critical | :05:43. | :05:47. | |
this situation is, whether this man is as dangerous as he claims to be, | :05:48. | :05:52. | |
and he claimed to beat when he asked the pilot to redirect and land in | :05:53. | :05:56. | |
Cyprus. When those passengers were released, they walked to a waiting | :05:57. | :06:01. | |
bus, so negotiations had gone on between the pilot, the hijacker and | :06:02. | :06:05. | |
I traffic control on the ground. When they walked, there was not a | :06:06. | :06:12. | |
great deal of urgency when they walked to the bus, it was a calm | :06:13. | :06:17. | |
situation? Exactly, that is what I was saying, it was a calm situation | :06:18. | :06:22. | |
from the passengers, the air hostess was composed. One would expect she | :06:23. | :06:28. | |
would be in a frenzy or trying to go out with them or leave with them, | :06:29. | :06:32. | |
but she looked at them, make sure everybody was off the stairs, turned | :06:33. | :06:36. | |
around and re-entered the plane into what seems to be a calm situation | :06:37. | :06:40. | |
given the fact it has been going on for three hours, that a few minutes | :06:41. | :06:45. | |
before these people were not sure if they were going to be released safe | :06:46. | :06:51. | |
and unharmed. It is Khan at the moment, no losses, no injuries. -- | :06:52. | :06:59. | |
it is calm at the moment. Just a demand for asylum in Cyprus. Matthew | :07:00. | :07:03. | |
Finn, an aviation security expert, joins me. How do you read this? A | :07:04. | :07:10. | |
hijacker apparently asking for asylum and telling the pilot that he | :07:11. | :07:16. | |
has a suicide vest on all with him? This is it, ultimately a hijacker is | :07:17. | :07:20. | |
about taking control of an aircraft, and how you do that is a level of | :07:21. | :07:23. | |
detail that is sometimes not as important. This person has been able | :07:24. | :07:30. | |
to exert control over the aircraft, diverted to Larnaca, it was not | :07:31. | :07:33. | |
chewed to go there. The crew believe there was a good enough reason to | :07:34. | :07:38. | |
divert the aircraft. It may be that he was able to present himself as | :07:39. | :07:42. | |
somebody who had a device, or that he does have a device, or does not, | :07:43. | :07:50. | |
we will not know that until it has played out. Still a dangerous | :07:51. | :07:54. | |
situation in the meantime? Absolutely. There is an aircraft | :07:55. | :07:59. | |
with people on board, the remaining passengers and crew. The crew is one | :08:00. | :08:04. | |
of the best assets on the ground right now. The Egyptair crew will be | :08:05. | :08:08. | |
calm, composed, they have training in this environment. It will not be | :08:09. | :08:14. | |
the first time they have been exposed to this situation, although | :08:15. | :08:18. | |
previously it would have been in training or simulation. Hopefully | :08:19. | :08:21. | |
their training will be kicking in and they can manage the situation | :08:22. | :08:25. | |
on-board the aircraft and can provide some helpful context for the | :08:26. | :08:29. | |
remaining passengers on board. If an individual wanted asylum, can you | :08:30. | :08:34. | |
think other plausible explanation as to why you would release the | :08:35. | :08:38. | |
Egyptian passengers but keep the non-Egyptian passengers on board? I | :08:39. | :08:42. | |
would not want to second-guess the motives. It could be that they have | :08:43. | :08:48. | |
their own potentially mental health issues, there are many instances of | :08:49. | :08:51. | |
aviation incidents where somebody has taken control and they have not | :08:52. | :08:57. | |
been battered well. -- have not been very well. It will be difficult to | :08:58. | :09:03. | |
second-guess. We will pause for a moment. Our correspondents in Cairo | :09:04. | :09:09. | |
will stay with us. I am told that we can speak to somebody from a Cyprus | :09:10. | :09:16. | |
newsagency. You are at the airport, what do you know? In the last half | :09:17. | :09:26. | |
an hour, 45 minutes, there is no movement. I can see the aeroplane, | :09:27. | :09:38. | |
there is no movement, the last movement was at around 9:20am, | :09:39. | :09:49. | |
passengers coming across. They were taken in a bus to the main building | :09:50. | :09:58. | |
of Larnaca airport. Everything is still, there is no movement coming | :09:59. | :10:01. | |
in or out of the aircraft. Of course, Larnaca airport is standing | :10:02. | :10:09. | |
still. There are no flights coming in or out. All the flights are | :10:10. | :10:16. | |
directed to Paphos airport. The passengers who were going to leave | :10:17. | :10:21. | |
to go to their destinations will be taken by buses to Paphos airport, as | :10:22. | :10:30. | |
long Islamic is closed. -- as long as Larnaca is closed. Have you heard | :10:31. | :10:36. | |
what we are reporting, that the hijacker wants asylum? No, I cannot | :10:37. | :10:41. | |
verify that information you have. There are rumours about the hijacker | :10:42. | :10:50. | |
wanting something, but I don't know. We don't have official information | :10:51. | :10:56. | |
from the police or the airport, I cannot verify or say anything. | :10:57. | :11:00. | |
Probably you have more information than we have, because we are in the | :11:01. | :11:06. | |
field just at the end of Larnaca airport. The police is moving us | :11:07. | :11:11. | |
from time to time further back from where we are standing, where we were | :11:12. | :11:16. | |
standing when we came at nine o'clock. We can see the plane | :11:17. | :11:23. | |
standing at the end of Larnaca airport, with no movement whatsoever | :11:24. | :11:27. | |
for the last couple of hours. Thank you for talking to us, that is a | :11:28. | :11:33. | |
correspondence from a Cyprus newsagency at the airport, but | :11:34. | :11:38. | |
clearly some distance away from where the plane is standing, | :11:39. | :11:41. | |
motionless. If you are just tuning in, good | :11:42. | :11:45. | |
morning, let's bring you the latest on the breaking news from Egypt, | :11:46. | :11:49. | |
that an Egyptair domestic flight from Alexandria to Cairo has been | :11:50. | :11:54. | |
highlight -- hijacked this morning and forced to land in Cyprus. The | :11:55. | :12:00. | |
pilot of the plane was threatened by a passenger who said he had a | :12:01. | :12:05. | |
suicide vest either on him with him, that is not clear yet. 55 passengers | :12:06. | :12:11. | |
on board and a crew of seven, most of the passengers were released | :12:12. | :12:15. | |
about half an hour or so ago. Those remaining on board, we are told, are | :12:16. | :12:24. | |
four non-Egyptians, and the seven crew members. It is also being | :12:25. | :12:31. | |
reported that the man who has forced the plane to land in Cyprus is | :12:32. | :12:37. | |
demanding asylum. Those passengers released a little earlier walked to | :12:38. | :12:42. | |
a waiting bus, pretty calmly, it has to be said. There did not seem to be | :12:43. | :12:49. | |
an air of panic, although no doubt on-board that plane as it forced to | :12:50. | :12:54. | |
divert, it was meant to be landing at Cairo, it was diverted to | :12:55. | :12:57. | |
Larnaca, no doubt there would have been a lot of unsettled people on | :12:58. | :13:03. | |
board, Matthew Finn? Absolutely, who knows what was going on on board the | :13:04. | :13:08. | |
aircraft at that time? It is a very stressful situation. I come back to | :13:09. | :13:11. | |
the crew who will hopefully remember their training, they are a great | :13:12. | :13:16. | |
asset in these situations. What will they be doing now? Keeping | :13:17. | :13:21. | |
communication going, hopefully providing a buffer between the | :13:22. | :13:25. | |
hijacker and the passengers, continuing in their GT of care, | :13:26. | :13:30. | |
looking after the safety and well-being of passengers so there is | :13:31. | :13:33. | |
no direct interaction between the hijacker and passengers themselves. | :13:34. | :13:38. | |
Given the discussion about nationality, it was possibly the | :13:39. | :13:41. | |
crew that had to go out and get the travel documents to reveal who was | :13:42. | :13:47. | |
from which country around the world. Providing basic information and | :13:48. | :13:51. | |
water, all of these things are really important to keep the | :13:52. | :13:57. | |
situation under control and keep the communication flowing around the | :13:58. | :13:59. | |
aircraft and with the people on the ground. And clearly ago she Asians | :14:00. | :14:04. | |
must have been going on earlier in order to release those Egyptian | :14:05. | :14:09. | |
passengers? -- and clearly negotiations must have been going | :14:10. | :14:14. | |
on? O'Gara even to get the stairs, it would have required lines of | :14:15. | :14:17. | |
communication, dialogue to be established. This is good use will | :14:18. | :14:24. | |
stop if there is communication there is the capability to start mediation | :14:25. | :14:28. | |
and negotiation, so it is all very positive, as is the release of the | :14:29. | :14:32. | |
majority of passengers. It was reassuring to see the calm manner in | :14:33. | :14:36. | |
which they were released from the aircraft. Obviously now attention | :14:37. | :14:40. | |
remains on those passengers and crew who remain in the aircraft, and | :14:41. | :14:44. | |
understanding that those lines of communication remain open. And a | :14:45. | :14:51. | |
dialogue can continue to be established to affect a safe outcome | :14:52. | :14:52. | |
for everybody involved. #6 l on the flight. We'll keep our | :14:53. | :14:58. | |
coverage here on BBC News with Victoria Derbyshire. #6 It's now | :14:59. | :15:00. | |
being reported by Cypriot media that the hijacker has asked for a letter | :15:01. | :15:06. | |
to be handed over to a woman in Cyprus. One newspaper says the woman | :15:07. | :15:16. | |
is the hijacker's ex-wife. Ranyah, I think you are still with us, you are | :15:17. | :15:19. | |
getting this information I think at the same time? Yes, we are. The | :15:20. | :15:27. | |
hijacker has requested this letter to be delivered to his ex-wife who | :15:28. | :15:31. | |
lives in Cyprus, but we have also been receiving reports that | :15:32. | :15:35. | |
initially he had asked the pilot to go to Istanbul, Turkey, not Cyprus. | :15:36. | :15:39. | |
Let me also correct a bit of information, this was not an | :15:40. | :15:46. | |
internal flight, it was an international flight initiated from | :15:47. | :15:49. | |
Saudi Arabia, heading to Cairo via Alexandria. It landed in Alexandria, | :15:50. | :15:55. | |
people got off there, it took off again to head to Cairo, then it was | :15:56. | :16:00. | |
diverted and landed in Cyprus. So it's an international flight, not an | :16:01. | :16:03. | |
internal flight and it's not known if the hijacker got on the plane in | :16:04. | :16:08. | |
Saudi Arabia or in Alexandria. That remains to be confirmed by the | :16:09. | :16:10. | |
authorities once the investigation is on its way. The hijacker asked | :16:11. | :16:18. | |
the pilot to redirect to Turkey and the pilot replied that he did not | :16:19. | :16:22. | |
have enough fuel in the plane and then he chose Cyprus as an | :16:23. | :16:26. | |
alternative route. We have heard that he has requested this letter to | :16:27. | :16:30. | |
be handed to his ex-wife who lives in the country and that he has | :16:31. | :16:41. | |
sought asylum in Cyprus as well. Matthew Finn, unconfirmed the fact | :16:42. | :16:46. | |
this hijacker has asked for a letter to be handed over to a woman in | :16:47. | :16:49. | |
Cyprus, said to be his ex-wife. If that turns out to be the case, we | :16:50. | :16:53. | |
are looking at a very different scenario than we thought we were | :16:54. | :16:56. | |
looking at about half an hour or so ago? We are and it's actually | :16:57. | :17:01. | |
reassuring in many respects. What I said earlier about so many instances | :17:02. | :17:06. | |
that happen in aviation, there are far more instances of disruptive or | :17:07. | :17:12. | |
violent behaviour on board aircraft than are reported in the press. | :17:13. | :17:17. | |
Obviously major aviation security incidents and hijacks like the one | :17:18. | :17:21. | |
today get a lot of attention. But there are other lesser talked about | :17:22. | :17:25. | |
instances where people are suffering with mental health, maybe even had | :17:26. | :17:29. | |
too much to drink or other situations like that. What it | :17:30. | :17:34. | |
appears in this situation, as it unfolds, is that the person in | :17:35. | :17:38. | |
question is just merely trying to get in touch with his ex-wife. If | :17:39. | :17:44. | |
that is the case, hopefully this situation can be quickly dealt with | :17:45. | :17:48. | |
and managed. Yes. Unconfirmed that that is the scenario that he wants | :17:49. | :17:52. | |
this letter to be handed over to a woman in Cyprus, although reported | :17:53. | :17:55. | |
earlier that he's demanding asylum in Cyprus. | :17:56. | :18:02. | |
Let's talk now to Jason Burke from the Guardian newspaper who is in | :18:03. | :18:10. | |
Lahore today. Jason Burke, again, unconfirmed reports that this man | :18:11. | :18:13. | |
who hijacked this plane has asked for asylum. But it's initially | :18:14. | :18:22. | |
thought that this could be another potential terrorist attack, that was | :18:23. | :18:27. | |
the initial thought? Yes, understandable given the week we | :18:28. | :18:31. | |
have had and the history of Islamic militants around the world targeting | :18:32. | :18:37. | |
aviation. We know that aviation is a favourite target for Islamic | :18:38. | :18:43. | |
militants, most obviously infamously with the 20019/11 attacks. But | :18:44. | :18:47. | |
before and half, it does now look, thankfully, as though this is very | :18:48. | :18:56. | |
much not Islamic militancy, it may even be the case that the supposed | :18:57. | :19:08. | |
suicide bomb or belt that the passenger is supposedly equipped | :19:09. | :19:10. | |
with may turn out to be fake or something different. It's | :19:11. | :19:13. | |
understandable that we are jumpy about it, it does underline the | :19:14. | :19:17. | |
importance of not jumping to conclusions in these sorts of | :19:18. | :19:22. | |
situations too early. Yes, absolutely right. It's worth | :19:23. | :19:25. | |
saying hijacking is pretty rare isn't it? It is very rare. You've | :19:26. | :19:33. | |
had maybe a dozen or so successful hijacks in the last 15 years. The | :19:34. | :19:38. | |
golden age, as it was called, of hijacking, was in the 70s, that was | :19:39. | :19:46. | |
partly due to the almost entire absence of any serious security | :19:47. | :19:50. | |
controls, certainly at the beginning of the decade and it was used by | :19:51. | :19:54. | |
terrorists then, rather different types of terrorists but still | :19:55. | :19:58. | |
terrorists to gain global attention for their cause. It was an effective | :19:59. | :20:07. | |
way of doing so. One of the most spectacular events of the 70s in | :20:08. | :20:11. | |
terms of hijacking was of three or four planes landed in northern | :20:12. | :20:15. | |
Jordan. They were blown up without any of the passengers on board. The | :20:16. | :20:19. | |
passengers were disembarked, then the planes were blown up simply for | :20:20. | :20:24. | |
the spectacular images and to make that point a terrorist wants to make | :20:25. | :20:27. | |
and to gain the attention that they want to gain. This obviously is a | :20:28. | :20:33. | |
very different situation and the motives of the passenger which are | :20:34. | :20:38. | |
still unclear seem to be of an entirely different nature. Jason | :20:39. | :20:41. | |
Burke, many thanks. Just to update you if you are just | :20:42. | :20:45. | |
tuning in. This is the breaking news from the last hour or so, a man has | :20:46. | :20:52. | |
hijacked an Egyptair plane travelling from Alexandria to Cairo | :20:53. | :20:56. | |
forcing it to land in Cyprus. The plane began its flight in Saudi | :20:57. | :20:58. | |
Arabia, it was an international flight. Most passengers have been | :20:59. | :21:03. | |
released but at least four foreign passengers and crew were sold -- we | :21:04. | :21:09. | |
are told, remain on board. Egyptian state media have highlighted the | :21:10. | :21:15. | |
hijacker as an Egyptian national. It's believed he's demanded asylum | :21:16. | :21:19. | |
in Cyprus. The hijacker was reportedly either strapped with | :21:20. | :21:23. | |
explosives or certainly said he had a suicide vest. That is what the | :21:24. | :21:29. | |
pilot reported to air control. That's not been confirmed. Matthew | :21:30. | :21:33. | |
Finn is an aviation security expert. If you are a passenger on a plane | :21:34. | :21:37. | |
and want to divert it, then presumably you need to say you have | :21:38. | :21:41. | |
a suicide vest, don't you? Well, again, that goes back to that | :21:42. | :21:46. | |
conversation earlier about control. Arguably, a lot of ayiation security | :21:47. | :21:52. | |
is about preventing people from getting prohibited items, weapons, | :21:53. | :21:57. | |
grenades, explosives on board. If indeed this hijacker has any of | :21:58. | :22:02. | |
those? Yes. But arguably, with intent, you could actually | :22:03. | :22:04. | |
demonstrate that you have a device, you can pretend to have a device, | :22:05. | :22:07. | |
and if that is believable or credible, you can still effect the | :22:08. | :22:10. | |
same outcome. So that might be the case here, | :22:11. | :22:14. | |
whether the passenger doesn't actually have any device on him | :22:15. | :22:17. | |
whatsoever but is saying that he has a device and is going to detonate it | :22:18. | :22:21. | |
at any given time. It's about control. You don't need to get to | :22:22. | :22:26. | |
the pilot to get that message through to the pilot do you? That's | :22:27. | :22:31. | |
quite difficult today. That's one of the single most effective responses | :22:32. | :22:37. | |
post-9/11, to reinforce the cockpit door. That prevents anyone from | :22:38. | :22:42. | |
gaining access to the aircraft that doesn't have legitimate access to | :22:43. | :22:45. | |
it. The reality is that becoming difficult to manage in a situation | :22:46. | :22:49. | |
where your fellow crew members and passengers are just on the other | :22:50. | :22:52. | |
side of a door suffering under a particular situation. So the door | :22:53. | :22:57. | |
should remain closed, the question is, does it always. But that is a | :22:58. | :23:02. | |
good mechanism to prevent that from happening. There is a line of | :23:03. | :23:05. | |
communication between the flight deck and the cabin. The cabin crew | :23:06. | :23:09. | |
could have relayed that message to the flight deck saying this is the | :23:10. | :23:12. | |
situation we have, established that line of communication with the | :23:13. | :23:17. | |
captain, who then chose to divert to Larnaca because of, as we heard, | :23:18. | :23:22. | |
fuel limitations. Yes, the pilot asked initially by | :23:23. | :23:25. | |
the hijacker to redirect the plane to Turkey. The pilot said, I don't | :23:26. | :23:30. | |
have enough fuel for that, and so they ended up in Larnaca Airport in | :23:31. | :23:34. | |
Cyprus. Matthew Finn thank you very much for your time. Still much | :23:35. | :23:41. | |
unconfirmed on this story. Jonny Dymond is here. The nature of the | :23:42. | :23:46. | |
story appears to be changing? It does appear to be changing from what | :23:47. | :23:51. | |
is probably everyone's first reaction these days which is, is | :23:52. | :23:55. | |
this a terrorist act and people indeed leap very quickly to Islamic | :23:56. | :24:00. | |
state, so jittery are we, so-called Islamic state we should say. It's | :24:01. | :24:04. | |
emerging this man is not carrying out a political act or not a broad | :24:05. | :24:08. | |
political act. He may or may not have tried to get in touch with | :24:09. | :24:13. | |
someone on the island of Cyprus. He appears to have claimed asylum. | :24:14. | :24:17. | |
Again, all these suggestions and claims have to be qualified, we are | :24:18. | :24:21. | |
not getting hard facts. He's released the majority of the | :24:22. | :24:25. | |
passengers very, very early on which is not what you would do in general | :24:26. | :24:28. | |
if you were hijacking a plane. Nearly all of them we understand, | :24:29. | :24:31. | |
bar four foreign nationals and the seven crew, have been released. | :24:32. | :24:36. | |
There are still extremely important questions to be asked. First of all, | :24:37. | :24:40. | |
is he wearing what he appears to say he is wearing, which is a suicide | :24:41. | :24:44. | |
belt and secondly, where did he board this plane, did he board in | :24:45. | :24:49. | |
Alexandria or at its original point which was Saudi Arabia. If he | :24:50. | :24:55. | |
boarded it in Alexandria, if he is carrying a suicide belt, it's an | :24:56. | :24:58. | |
astonishing lapse by the Egyptian authorities. In 2015, a plane from | :24:59. | :25:03. | |
Sharm El-Sheikh was bombed out of the sky, everybody killed. What | :25:04. | :25:07. | |
looks like a catastrophic lapse in security by the Egyptian end of | :25:08. | :25:11. | |
things in Sharm El-Sheikh. If this man's got on a plane with anything | :25:12. | :25:16. | |
resembling a suicide belt in Alex and aye, it will be a huge blow for | :25:17. | :25:21. | |
Egypt and its tourist industry and reputation -- Alexandria. When we | :25:22. | :25:28. | |
saw the majority of the passengers being released earlier, there | :25:29. | :25:32. | |
appeared to be a mood of calm. Nobody was dashing for the bus that | :25:33. | :25:37. | |
was waiting to take them to freedom, people were walking in a composed | :25:38. | :25:42. | |
manner. We are told the stewardess was composed too? This looks very, | :25:43. | :25:46. | |
very different from the kinds of things we heard Jason Burke talking | :25:47. | :25:51. | |
about there from this so-called golden age, fairly grim term, of | :25:52. | :25:55. | |
terrorism, where passengers might be kept on board planes for days on | :25:56. | :25:59. | |
end. Food and water would be brought in, passengers would be split off, | :26:00. | :26:03. | |
taken to hotels. This is a very different story. This starts to look | :26:04. | :26:11. | |
like a very upset man with some personal difficulties, perhaps | :26:12. | :26:15. | |
personal political difficulties thus the suggested claim for asylum in | :26:16. | :26:22. | |
the island of Cyprus, a claim which seems unlikely will get granted if | :26:23. | :26:25. | |
this is his way of doing it. It starts to look like a smaller | :26:26. | :26:31. | |
affair, albeit still very dangerous. There are 11 people on board. It's a | :26:32. | :26:36. | |
difficult time but it's not, it looks like the sort of classic | :26:37. | :26:41. | |
terrorist act, of the 1970s where a plane load of passengers, perhaps | :26:42. | :26:45. | |
several plane loads at one time if you remember in Jordan in the early | :26:46. | :26:50. | |
1970s, that happened and they were taken, held and used as bargaining | :26:51. | :26:54. | |
chips in front of the global media. If he is using the remaining | :26:55. | :26:59. | |
passengers as bargaining chips, we are told they are non-Egyptian. We | :27:00. | :27:04. | |
are told they are foreign nationals. What could be an explanation for | :27:05. | :27:11. | |
that, do you think? It's extremely difficult because it appears, and | :27:12. | :27:14. | |
again we are in the realms of speculation, but it appears in | :27:15. | :27:18. | |
amongst the passengers released earlier, about an hour ago, there | :27:19. | :27:21. | |
were or may have been foreign nationals there, so it's not quite | :27:22. | :27:25. | |
clear whether or not he has attempted to keep foreign nationals | :27:26. | :27:29. | |
back and release Egyptian citizens in the hope perhaps that foreign | :27:30. | :27:34. | |
nationals are in this perverse world worth more, or whether it's just an | :27:35. | :27:39. | |
accident of fate. Obviously foreign governments around the world will be | :27:40. | :27:43. | |
scrambling to find out if they are their nationals. We don't have hard | :27:44. | :27:47. | |
certainty as to whether or not any British citizens were involved, we | :27:48. | :27:50. | |
don't know the nationalities of the rest of those who were relessed. The | :27:51. | :27:55. | |
likelihood is, if this was a partly internal flight, because this was | :27:56. | :27:58. | |
Saudi Arabia, Alexandria, then it was meant to go to Cairo. The | :27:59. | :28:04. | |
likelihood is, most of the people on board are Egyptian citizens. We are | :28:05. | :28:08. | |
slightly in the dark about quite why four in particular foreign nationals | :28:09. | :28:11. | |
were held back when the vast majority of the others were | :28:12. | :28:15. | |
released. Yes. If you are one of those passengers left on board | :28:16. | :28:18. | |
though, you will be feeling very afraid right now? It's an absolutely | :28:19. | :28:21. | |
terrifying time. If you talk to people who've been in any of these | :28:22. | :28:26. | |
kinds of situations, it's immensely isolating. You go from what is an | :28:27. | :28:30. | |
absolutely routine experience for many, many people now, which is | :28:31. | :28:34. | |
catching a plane, internal flight, even an international flight, you go | :28:35. | :28:38. | |
from that and suddenly your world is changed, you are cut off from the | :28:39. | :28:42. | |
rest of the passengers, you have very limited communications, | :28:43. | :28:44. | |
presumably unless they have ability to get through on their mobile | :28:45. | :28:49. | |
phones, sudden think hire acte is reversed, the people who you have | :28:50. | :28:52. | |
entrusted your safety to, the crew of the plane are no longer really in | :28:53. | :29:01. | |
control. They'll presumably take some Sukur from the fact that the | :29:02. | :29:05. | |
majority of the passengers have been released. We have got around 40-odd | :29:06. | :29:12. | |
passengers released after 55 in total we think there were. | :29:13. | :29:16. | |
Presumably it's relatively calm on board the plane and there are | :29:17. | :29:19. | |
negotiations ongoing. Yes. We'll talk about the | :29:20. | :29:24. | |
negotiations in a second. Reuters is reporting that the Cyprus state | :29:25. | :29:29. | |
broadcaster is reporting that more passengers have been seen leaving | :29:30. | :29:33. | |
the hijacked Egyptair plane. We don't have the live pictures of that | :29:34. | :29:37. | |
at the moment. This is according to Reuters. They say Cyprus state | :29:38. | :29:42. | |
broadcaster are showing more passengers leaving the Egyptair | :29:43. | :29:47. | |
plane as it stands stationary on the ground at Larnaca. | :29:48. | :29:51. | |
If that is true, very good news? Very good news. It suggests, | :29:52. | :29:55. | |
although we don't want to jump ahead of ourselves, it suggests that this | :29:56. | :30:01. | |
may be winding down. Let's stand back, there was 55 passengers and | :30:02. | :30:06. | |
seven crew, it then was down to four passengers left on the plane with | :30:07. | :30:09. | |
the seven crew. If we are seeing more passengers coming out, that is | :30:10. | :30:13. | |
in all likelihood the rest of the passengers coming out. Perhaps some | :30:14. | :30:16. | |
crew with them as well, we don't know. | :30:17. | :30:20. | |
It starts to sound like the kind of thing Turkey experienced a couple of | :30:21. | :30:26. | |
years ago, where you would get somebody who was not entirely stable | :30:27. | :30:31. | |
grabbing some of that looked like explosives, I think it was a handful | :30:32. | :30:36. | |
of candles in one case, the pilot reacts as safely as possible but it | :30:37. | :30:39. | |
is not the kind of threat that people assume when they hear the | :30:40. | :30:43. | |
word hijacking. It begins to look like that, but we will have to see. | :30:44. | :30:48. | |
The associated rest is saying that 56 people on board the hijacked | :30:49. | :30:52. | |
plane have now been released, they had left the aircraft, it would | :30:53. | :30:55. | |
suggest that all the passengers and one member of the crew. Reuters say | :30:56. | :31:05. | |
that the hijacker is a professor of that in a and at Alexandria | :31:06. | :31:12. | |
University. The Egyptair hijacker, Reuters says, a professor of | :31:13. | :31:16. | |
veterinary medicine at Alexandria University. That has come from the | :31:17. | :31:23. | |
University website, apparently. Obviously a fairly unlikely | :31:24. | :31:27. | |
profession for I hijacker, it is not something you get every day, a | :31:28. | :31:30. | |
professor of veterinary medicine carrying out a hijacking, if that is | :31:31. | :31:35. | |
the case. It seems to lean towards, rather than it being a big, | :31:36. | :31:42. | |
political hijacking, that this man has temporarily, perhaps, taken | :31:43. | :31:44. | |
leave of his senses and has been driven by some force which we do not | :31:45. | :31:50. | |
quite know to carry this hijacking. What is exceptionally good news for | :31:51. | :31:53. | |
those on board is that he appears to be acting incredibly rationally, | :31:54. | :31:58. | |
perhaps having second thoughts when faced with a planeload of clearly | :31:59. | :32:02. | |
terrified passengers and thinking, I have to buying this down, these | :32:03. | :32:08. | |
people need releasing. -- I had to wind this down. It seems that all | :32:09. | :32:12. | |
passengers and one crew member, about an hour and a half after the | :32:13. | :32:17. | |
plane landed, have been released. Exceptional good news if this is the | :32:18. | :32:21. | |
case. Some broadcasters in Cyprus showed this image of the man they | :32:22. | :32:27. | |
claim is the hijacker. We have not been able to independently verify | :32:28. | :32:31. | |
this, but you can see it here. Just to say again, it has not been | :32:32. | :32:36. | |
independently verified, we have not verified it, but some broadcasters | :32:37. | :32:42. | |
are showing this still image of the man they say is the hijacker of the | :32:43. | :32:48. | |
plane, the professor of veterinary medicine, we are told, from | :32:49. | :32:51. | |
Alexandria University. This is the image we are being shown of the man | :32:52. | :32:56. | |
who told the Egyptair pilot that he had a suicide vest on all with him, | :32:57. | :33:02. | |
and he wanted the plane to be diverted to Turkey, actually. The | :33:03. | :33:06. | |
pilot said he did not have enough fuel for that. The plane has ended | :33:07. | :33:12. | |
up in site press ad Larnaca airport. -- ended up in Cyprus. Some | :33:13. | :33:17. | |
broadcasters are showing this image of the man they say has hijacked | :33:18. | :33:23. | |
this particular Egyptair plane. According to Reuters, if it is, | :33:24. | :33:28. | |
indeed, the hijacker, is a professor of veterinary medicine from | :33:29. | :33:31. | |
Alexandria University. Jonny Diamond, thank you very much | :33:32. | :33:34. | |
for the moment. It is coming up to 9:30am. | :33:35. | :33:37. | |
The airline Egyptair says one of its flights has been hijacked | :33:38. | :33:40. | |
The hijacker's reportedly had a suicide belt on him or with him. | :33:41. | :33:47. | |
Cyprus state media has said he has demanded asylum in the country. | :33:48. | :33:52. | |
Reuters report he is a professor of veterinary medicine from Alexandria | :33:53. | :33:55. | |
universe due. Egyptair says most passengers | :33:56. | :33:59. | |
on board, barring four foreigners and seven members of the crew, | :34:00. | :34:01. | |
have now been released. But, as you know, in the last few | :34:02. | :34:11. | |
seconds, one news agency, Associated Press, quotes a Cyprus official as | :34:12. | :34:17. | |
saying that 56 people on board have been released, winning all | :34:18. | :34:20. | |
passengers and potentially one crewmember. | :34:21. | :34:21. | |
The Foreign Office has said it is working to establish | :34:22. | :34:23. | |
if there are any Britons among the passengers. | :34:24. | :34:25. | |
The flight originally took off from Saudi Arabia and stopped off | :34:26. | :34:27. | |
in Alexandria, which is when it was taken over as it | :34:28. | :34:30. | |
It is now on the ground at Larnaca airport in Cyprus. | :34:31. | :34:37. | |
We also understand that flights to Larnaca are being | :34:38. | :34:43. | |
Earlier our correspondent in Cairo, Ranyah Sabry gave us the latest. | :34:44. | :34:49. | |
The Egyptair flight took off from the International Airport in Saudi | :34:50. | :34:58. | |
Arabia heading to the Egyptian capital, Cairo, via Alexandria. It | :34:59. | :35:02. | |
landed in Alexandria, where scores of Egyptians got off in their home | :35:03. | :35:06. | |
village, when it took off again, supposedly to Cairo, it was redirect | :35:07. | :35:11. | |
did toward Cyprus and landed there. The Cypriot officials were this | :35:12. | :35:16. | |
verse to announce that the plane was hijacked, supposedly, add 5:30am | :35:17. | :35:21. | |
GMT. It is not clear at the moment whether the hijacker got on in | :35:22. | :35:26. | |
Alexandria or in Saudi Arabia, and also whether he has a suicide belt | :35:27. | :35:33. | |
or not. He claims to be armed, he told the pilot that he had an | :35:34. | :35:37. | |
explosive belt, but it has not been confirmed so far. The pilot took him | :35:38. | :35:43. | |
at his word and redirected the plate. Initially, the hijacker | :35:44. | :35:47. | |
requested to go to Turkey, but according to the pilot fuel was not | :35:48. | :35:52. | |
enough to fly out, which is why he picked Cyprus as an alternative | :35:53. | :35:56. | |
route, and there are reports that the hijacker is asking for asylum in | :35:57. | :35:59. | |
Cyprus. It is being reported in the Cypriot | :36:00. | :36:07. | |
media that the hijacker might have personal motives and he has asked | :36:08. | :36:10. | |
boiler tipped to be delivered to his ex-wife. Aviation security expert | :36:11. | :36:17. | |
Matthew Finn says, if true, that changes it completely. It is | :36:18. | :36:22. | |
reassuring in many affect. What I said about some of the instances | :36:23. | :36:26. | |
that happen in aviation, there are far more instances of disruptive or | :36:27. | :36:32. | |
violent behaviour on board aircraft than reported in the press. | :36:33. | :36:36. | |
Obviously major aviation security incident and hijacks like the one | :36:37. | :36:43. | |
today get attention, but there are lesser talked about instances where | :36:44. | :36:47. | |
people are suffering from mental health, have maybe had too much to | :36:48. | :36:52. | |
drink or other situations like that. It appears, as this situation | :36:53. | :36:56. | |
unfolds, that the person in question was merely trying to get in touch | :36:57. | :37:02. | |
with his ex-wife. If that is the case, hopefully the situation can be | :37:03. | :37:03. | |
quickly dealt with and manage. On the line is Michael Theodolou, | :37:04. | :37:06. | |
a British journalist for the Times What are you hearing? The latest | :37:07. | :37:15. | |
report in the local media is that the man may have personal motives, | :37:16. | :37:21. | |
that there was a letter written in Arabic which was dropped onto the | :37:22. | :37:26. | |
tarmac, asking it to be delivered to his ex-wife who is apparently a | :37:27. | :37:30. | |
Cypriot. That is good news, it suggests he does not have big | :37:31. | :37:34. | |
political motives, he is not demanding safe release of terrorist | :37:35. | :37:39. | |
prisoners in other countries. More people have been seen leaving the | :37:40. | :37:45. | |
plane in the last few minutes. Reuters are reporting that this man | :37:46. | :37:52. | |
is a professor of veterinary medicine from Alexandria University? | :37:53. | :37:58. | |
Yes. That, I think, is coming from the Egyptian authorities and is an | :37:59. | :38:04. | |
encouraging sign. It does not fit the modern terrorist profile, if you | :38:05. | :38:08. | |
like. And it might suggest that early reports that he was supposed | :38:09. | :38:11. | |
to be carrying a suicide belt might be wrong, maybe he had something | :38:12. | :38:18. | |
that appeared to be very dangerous but questions would obviously had to | :38:19. | :38:21. | |
be asked how you get explosives onto a plane. Maybe he made something on | :38:22. | :38:26. | |
the plane look like it was dangerous. We are getting this | :38:27. | :38:33. | |
information reported by AFP, the French news agency, they say at | :38:34. | :38:39. | |
least five more people have been released from that plane. The five, | :38:40. | :38:44. | |
wearing what appeared to be crew uniforms, were descending from the | :38:45. | :38:50. | |
aircraft. And this has just reached us, the hijacker has an estranged | :38:51. | :38:54. | |
Cypriot wife, he has demanded to see her. A government source is telling | :38:55. | :38:59. | |
AFP that she is being brought to Larnaca airport as we speak. Yes, in | :39:00. | :39:06. | |
fact I have seen her named on social media, I will not repeat that | :39:07. | :39:10. | |
because it has not been confirmed, she is from a village outside | :39:11. | :39:15. | |
Larnaca, according to local reports. The Cypriot authorities, who have | :39:16. | :39:19. | |
experience of dealing with hijacks in the past, the last one was 20 | :39:20. | :39:24. | |
years ago, but they are good at this and into which with the foreign | :39:25. | :39:30. | |
embassy. -- and in touch with. There is a strong security presence at | :39:31. | :39:34. | |
Larnaca airport, which has been closed for the time being. Thank | :39:35. | :39:41. | |
you, Michael. That was a British journalist for the Times newspaper | :39:42. | :39:42. | |
based in Cyprus. The Foreign Office has | :39:43. | :39:44. | |
updated its travel advice to people The aviation consultant | :39:45. | :39:46. | |
David Learmount joins us via webcam. Hello. What do you make of this in | :39:47. | :40:25. | |
terms of security? It is very, very significant. It is (INAUDIBLE) | :40:26. | :40:35. | |
Of discipline by the Egyptian crew. There was a great history of hijacks | :40:36. | :40:41. | |
starting in the 1970s. Ever since 9/11 and the security measures put | :40:42. | :40:44. | |
in place there, we have not had any hijacks. We are seeing something | :40:45. | :40:52. | |
extraordinary. That's captain, who access to just aren't being told | :40:53. | :40:55. | |
that somebody on board had a suicide vest, should have had sufficient | :40:56. | :41:03. | |
confidence in the security services to know that that was impossible, | :41:04. | :41:09. | |
therefore he should not have followed the instructions of the | :41:10. | :41:15. | |
hijacker. The only thing which might have made him nervous, again, it has | :41:16. | :41:21. | |
an Egyptian base, that is that a bomb was got on board an aircraft | :41:22. | :41:26. | |
which flew out of Sharm el-Sheikh in December last year. That may have | :41:27. | :41:32. | |
made him nervous, but it is no excuse. The Egyptian authorities | :41:33. | :41:38. | |
should have good unit security that back captain could have said, I know | :41:39. | :41:42. | |
the man is lying. That would be one heck of a call to make from a | :41:43. | :41:48. | |
pilot's point of view. It would indeed but, on the other hand, if | :41:49. | :41:56. | |
the person really does have a suicide belt on, and if they really | :41:57. | :42:04. | |
are a dangerous terrorist, and IS type terrorist, I would rather | :42:05. | :42:09. | |
suspect that they would not merely make a threat. I think they would | :42:10. | :42:17. | |
show what they have got. There have been a lot of hijacks before 9/11, | :42:18. | :42:22. | |
many wooden by precisely these means. The whole idea of the post | :42:23. | :42:32. | |
9/11 system was that the regime on board changed completely. Pre-9/11, | :42:33. | :42:43. | |
the captain accepted it and the problem was dealt with at the | :42:44. | :42:46. | |
destination specified by the hijacker. Since that time, the | :42:47. | :42:49. | |
regime on board has changed completely. If you go to the day | :42:50. | :42:56. | |
that 9/11 happened, one of the four aircraft which was hijacked which | :42:57. | :43:01. | |
did not hit its target, it was taken over by passengers who were picking | :43:02. | :43:07. | |
up mobile telephone calls, they realise that the aircraft had been | :43:08. | :43:11. | |
hijacked and they took over the hijacker. This situation has | :43:12. | :43:18. | |
changed, but this is going back into hijacking Stone Age. The Egyptians | :43:19. | :43:24. | |
are allowing this to happen. To stay with us, if you would, for a moment | :43:25. | :43:30. | |
or two, because now we can talk to a correspondence at the Cyprus | :43:31. | :43:34. | |
newsagency, she is at Larnaca airport. What is the latest that you | :43:35. | :43:43. | |
are hearing? The latest is that the hijacker, from what we understand, | :43:44. | :43:49. | |
is one person, has released the last five passengers or crew. He is on | :43:50. | :43:59. | |
the playwright now. -- on the plane right now. We know he is speaking to | :44:00. | :44:10. | |
people from the aviation, they are surveying his requests. What we are | :44:11. | :44:20. | |
waiting now is to be briefed by the crisis sent, hopefully soon. Sorry, | :44:21. | :44:28. | |
it is quite difficult to hear you, did you say the hijacker is the only | :44:29. | :44:32. | |
person left on board? That is except the what we have, that is the latest | :44:33. | :44:39. | |
information. So the pilot and the rest of the crew are off the plane? | :44:40. | :44:50. | |
Exactly. The passenger was taken to the new airport -- the passengers | :44:51. | :44:54. | |
were taken to. The airport is closed. All flights have been | :44:55. | :45:03. | |
diverted to Paphos airport. There are no planes landing there. The | :45:04. | :45:09. | |
situation is still fluid and the information coming through is very | :45:10. | :45:13. | |
slow. Device I don't know if you have heard this, one French news | :45:14. | :45:18. | |
agency has reported that the former wife of this hijacker is being | :45:19. | :45:22. | |
brought to the airport, because the hijacker has demanded to see her? | :45:23. | :45:28. | |
I have unconfirmed information that he was married to someone from the | :45:29. | :45:39. | |
Larnaca district and they have children and that Middle East making | :45:40. | :45:44. | |
some demands. But that is information also that is not | :45:45. | :45:46. | |
confirmed. OK. | :45:47. | :45:52. | |
Thank you very much. The image that you are seeing on screen right now | :45:53. | :45:58. | |
is being shown by some broadcasters who say that this is the face of the | :45:59. | :46:03. | |
hijacker, the man who forced this plane to divert. In the end, to | :46:04. | :46:09. | |
Larnaca Airport in Cyprus. He has, we are told, demanded asylum and | :46:10. | :46:13. | |
also it's being reported by various news agencies, demanded to see his | :46:14. | :46:18. | |
estranged Cypriot wife. If that is indeed the face of the hijacker, | :46:19. | :46:23. | |
then he's also said to be a Professor of Veterinary medicine | :46:24. | :46:28. | |
from Alexandria university. You can see on the map there exactly where | :46:29. | :46:35. | |
this plane was diverted from. It was an international flight, set off | :46:36. | :46:38. | |
from Saudi Arabia, stopped off in Alexandria on its way to Cairo. | :46:39. | :46:43. | |
According to our Cairo correspondent, the hijacker | :46:44. | :46:45. | |
initially asked the pilot to redirect to Turkey. It was then that | :46:46. | :46:48. | |
the pilot said there wasn't enough fuel for that so the plane | :46:49. | :46:52. | |
eventually landed at Larnaca Airport in Cyprus. | :46:53. | :46:57. | |
We can talk now the BBC producer Rebecca Bailey at the airport and I | :46:58. | :47:01. | |
think you have been talking to other passengers there. What have they | :47:02. | :47:04. | |
been saying to you? Yes, that's right. It's a bit chaotic here | :47:05. | :47:09. | |
because obviously any flight landing is being diverted so I spoke to one | :47:10. | :47:12. | |
person waiting for his elderly mother to come from Jordan. He's | :47:13. | :47:19. | |
waiting to find out whether she's been diverted to Paphos, the other | :47:20. | :47:25. | |
airport on the island, and in that case if she is, the passengers also | :47:26. | :47:30. | |
bussed over. At the moment, there doesn't seem to be very much | :47:31. | :47:33. | |
information given out, other than what is on the arrival and departure | :47:34. | :47:37. | |
boards. That is what people are going by. Are people aware of what's | :47:38. | :47:44. | |
happened this morning? Yes. I think they are. News spread quickly over | :47:45. | :47:50. | |
social media here. I was in the hairdressers when it happened and | :47:51. | :47:54. | |
everyone got out their phones and were goings "oh my goodness this is | :47:55. | :47:57. | |
happening" and were sharing information. There were a lot of | :47:58. | :48:04. | |
unsubstantiated rumours flying around as there always are in these | :48:05. | :48:08. | |
cases but people are aware of what is happening mainly through social | :48:09. | :48:12. | |
media and social media here. Thank you very much. | :48:13. | :48:21. | |
David, the security expert, is still with us. He's said it's a terrible | :48:22. | :48:28. | |
breach of security and the most significant event effectively you | :48:29. | :48:33. | |
were saying since 9/11 in terms of a breach of that security and the | :48:34. | :48:37. | |
pilot should have made the call that the hijacker was perhaps not as | :48:38. | :48:42. | |
dangerous as he said he was? Yes. Literally, if we are going back into | :48:43. | :48:46. | |
what I just referred to as the security Stone Age, we have no faith | :48:47. | :48:53. | |
in our systems whatever. We set up a system since 9/11 which has | :48:54. | :48:57. | |
prevented hijacks. This is the first since 9/11. Anyone who wants to go | :48:58. | :49:03. | |
somewhere which is not the destination planned, you have to | :49:04. | :49:06. | |
send a message to the captain to say, I have a suicide belt, take me | :49:07. | :49:09. | |
where I want to go. We have gone back to those days. We have to have | :49:10. | :49:14. | |
a person that is, in this case Egypt, the last place it took off | :49:15. | :49:19. | |
from was Alexandria, we have to have a system where the captain has | :49:20. | :49:24. | |
complete confidence in the security people that somebody with a suicide | :49:25. | :49:27. | |
belt could not possibly have got on board. So when the demand is made, | :49:28. | :49:35. | |
the captain just says "no", the person who is claiming to have the | :49:36. | :49:39. | |
vest is taken over by the crew with the help of the passengers. This is | :49:40. | :49:45. | |
all post-9/11 stuff. That is what the drill is now. So in this | :49:46. | :49:51. | |
particular case, that captain should simply have continued to his | :49:52. | :49:56. | |
destination and landed safely and the person would have been | :49:57. | :50:02. | |
demonstrated to have been a fraud, which is what we are now finding | :50:03. | :50:07. | |
out. But I can't emphasise enough, if we have lost faith in the system, | :50:08. | :50:12. | |
anybody who wants to go where he wants to go when he gets airborne | :50:13. | :50:18. | |
just has to say, "I've got a bomb" and the captain says "fine, I'll | :50:19. | :50:23. | |
take you where you want to go". I mean we have got back into the | :50:24. | :50:25. | |
security Stone Age. Thank you very much for talking to | :50:26. | :50:30. | |
us. Good morning, let's bring you | :50:31. | :50:33. | |
up-to-date. The airline Egyptair says one of its flights has been | :50:34. | :50:37. | |
hijacked and forced to land in Cyprus. The hijacker, who said he | :50:38. | :50:42. | |
had a suicide vest, either on him or with him, is reported to have asked | :50:43. | :50:47. | |
for asylum. The news agency Reuters is reporting the hijacker is a | :50:48. | :50:52. | |
Professor of Veterinary medicine from Alexandria university. There | :50:53. | :50:55. | |
are unconfirmed reports that all passengers and crew on board have | :50:56. | :50:58. | |
now been released and that the hijacker is the only person who | :50:59. | :51:03. | |
remains on board the plane. Five members of the crew have been | :51:04. | :51:08. | |
seen coming off the aircraft. Earlier, Egyptair said four foreign | :51:09. | :51:12. | |
passengers and the crew members remained on board. | :51:13. | :51:17. | |
This unverified image is thought to be the man who hijacked the plane. | :51:18. | :51:20. | |
It's being reported that he may have personal motives and that he has | :51:21. | :51:25. | |
asked for a letter to be delivered to his estranged wife, thought to be | :51:26. | :51:28. | |
living in Cyprus. The Foreign Office has said it's | :51:29. | :51:32. | |
working to establish if there are any British people amongst the | :51:33. | :51:34. | |
passengers. The flight originally took off from | :51:35. | :51:39. | |
Saudi Arabia and stopped off in Alexandria, which is when it was | :51:40. | :51:43. | |
taken over, as it tried to continue its journey to Cairo. It's on the | :51:44. | :51:48. | |
ground at Larnaca Airport in Cyprus. We also understand that flights to | :51:49. | :51:53. | |
Larnaca are being diverted to Paphos. Let's talk to our | :51:54. | :52:01. | |
correspondent again in Cairo, Ranyah Sabry. One news agency reporting | :52:02. | :52:08. | |
that the hijacker's ex-wife is being brought to the airport. I don't know | :52:09. | :52:12. | |
if you can confirm that? It's not possible to confirm that, especially | :52:13. | :52:17. | |
from the Egyptian side. We are waiting for a press conference from | :52:18. | :52:22. | |
the Aviation Authority to speak about this incident, but according | :52:23. | :52:27. | |
to statements from Cyprus, the presidential statements there, the | :52:28. | :52:30. | |
accident was not motivated by terrorism. Also, we have been | :52:31. | :52:34. | |
receiving reports that all the passengers and the crew members have | :52:35. | :52:38. | |
been off the plane and the hijacker remains on his own on the plane. | :52:39. | :52:44. | |
Just like we have seen from the image, the man seems to be in his | :52:45. | :52:49. | |
late 40s, early 50s, and has asked for a letter to be delivered to his | :52:50. | :52:55. | |
ex-wife who reportedly lives in Cyprus. Egyptair has confirmed that | :52:56. | :53:00. | |
the flight carried a number of foreign passengers from different | :53:01. | :53:04. | |
countries, but it was not known the four who remained until the end | :53:05. | :53:09. | |
which nationality were they. Do stay with us for a moment if you | :53:10. | :53:17. | |
can. I'm told we can talk to - actually let me bring you this from | :53:18. | :53:21. | |
the Cyprus President who has commented on the hijacking. He said; | :53:22. | :53:28. | |
it's all to do with a woman. Addressing reporters while visiting | :53:29. | :53:32. | |
the European Parliament. The Cypriot leader has ruled out terrorism being | :53:33. | :53:37. | |
behind the hijacking confirming that it's been instigated by a lovesick | :53:38. | :53:41. | |
man bent on reunited with his former Cypriot wife. According to the | :53:42. | :53:44. | |
Cypriot President, it's all to do with a woman, we are doing | :53:45. | :53:54. | |
everything to release the hostages. Ranyah, we've already made it clear | :53:55. | :53:57. | |
that all of the passengers now and the crew are released? Yes, that is | :53:58. | :54:04. | |
what we have at the moment. After about five very tense hours for the | :54:05. | :54:10. | |
passengers and for people worldwide watching this incident, it turns out | :54:11. | :54:15. | |
to be down to this one woman and this lovesick man who is attempting | :54:16. | :54:21. | |
to chase her. Obviously wanting to make himself known, seen and heard. | :54:22. | :54:25. | |
He's managed to do that as we all currently breathe a sigh of relief | :54:26. | :54:29. | |
waiting for more details to come through. But for now it's not a | :54:30. | :54:34. | |
terrorist motivated attack or incident and all the passengers and | :54:35. | :54:39. | |
crew are safe. We are waiting from the statement from the Ministry of | :54:40. | :54:43. | |
Aviation in Egypt, expected at the top of the hour. | :54:44. | :54:47. | |
We'll obviously bring that to our audience live as soon as that | :54:48. | :54:50. | |
begins. If it's true that it is, according to the Cyprus President, a | :54:51. | :54:55. | |
lovesick man attempting to get the attention of his estranged partner, | :54:56. | :55:00. | |
then it's an absolutely extraordinary and rather Deaning | :55:01. | :55:05. | |
rows way of going about it? -- dangerous way of going about it? I | :55:06. | :55:08. | |
would agree and I believe this man will be subject to a number of | :55:09. | :55:12. | |
checks for mental health once this is all over because the amount of | :55:13. | :55:18. | |
tension, the amount of danger he put everybody through is quite | :55:19. | :55:23. | |
remarkable, just to reach his goal or his motive and be reunited with | :55:24. | :55:28. | |
his wife in Cyprus. We still don't know if the wife is on her way to | :55:29. | :55:33. | |
the airport, as some Cypriot media sources have been claiming, that | :55:34. | :55:40. | |
remains to be seen. It turned out to be a difficult morning. Thank you | :55:41. | :55:41. | |
very much. As Ranyah said, we are expecting a | :55:42. | :55:52. | |
news conference by Egyptian officials in possibly the next five | :55:53. | :55:57. | |
to ten minutes or so. As soon as that begins, we'll bring that to you | :55:58. | :55:58. | |
live. Good morning, you are watching a BBC | :55:59. | :56:12. | |
News Special with the latest on the hijacked Egyptian plane forced to | :56:13. | :56:25. | |
land at Cyprus. Davon, you were a passenger waiting to board a plane, | :56:26. | :56:33. | |
tell us what you saw? I saw the passengers being led off, which is | :56:34. | :56:37. | |
great news. I just heard that the passengers and crew are all released | :56:38. | :56:41. | |
which is great news. So the atmosphere now at the airport | :56:42. | :56:46. | |
presumably pretty calm? There is a sense of relief. Everybody is glad | :56:47. | :56:56. | |
the crew and passengers are safe. Everybody is glad it was a lovesick | :56:57. | :57:00. | |
man and not a terrorist, could have been worse. | :57:01. | :57:08. | |
Thank you very much. Let's talk now to Nicholas Zanetos, a journalist in | :57:09. | :57:14. | |
Cyprus who is at the airport. Thank you for talking to us. Are you | :57:15. | :57:18. | |
hearing the hijacker's estranged partner is on her way to the | :57:19. | :57:22. | |
airport? The information that I'm getting right now is that the | :57:23. | :57:30. | |
passenger is at the airport and police sources told me five minutes | :57:31. | :57:39. | |
ago that this man has four children with this woman and this is getting | :57:40. | :57:44. | |
more and more interesting. We also had some statement from the | :57:45. | :57:53. | |
President whoa said, answering a question, that everything happened | :57:54. | :57:56. | |
is for a woman. So this is pretty much the story right now. I'm 800 | :57:57. | :58:04. | |
metres from the airplane. We seen half an hour ago three persons | :58:05. | :58:09. | |
coming out of the aircraft and they were carried by a bus to the old | :58:10. | :58:18. | |
part of the airport. We are in the hold and we expect a move by the | :58:19. | :58:22. | |
police as soon as possible. I don't know if you heard that the | :58:23. | :58:27. | |
passenger that was speaking to me before we came to you, an enormous | :58:28. | :58:34. | |
sense of relief at the airport? That is right. There is some relief from | :58:35. | :58:40. | |
the point of view that we are not dealing with a terrorist attack. | :58:41. | :58:46. | |
That is pretty much the view right now. | :58:47. | :58:52. | |
OK. What is the reaction if it's true that this is a lovesick man | :58:53. | :58:57. | |
wanting to attract the attention of his ex-partner. What is the reaction | :58:58. | :59:02. | |
to that? People are saying this is very strange. I mean, the amount of | :59:03. | :59:11. | |
attention that he chose to raise about this incident, it's pretty | :59:12. | :59:16. | |
much shocking the fact that he hijacked a plane to grab the | :59:17. | :59:21. | |
attention of his partner. This is very strange, yes. There will still | :59:22. | :59:27. | |
be questions to be asked of security systems in place, particularly at | :59:28. | :59:37. | |
Egyptair lines and Alexandria Airport? Yes, exactly, we are | :59:38. | :59:41. | |
awaiting those answers as well. We are expecting a news conference are | :59:42. | :59:48. | |
we? Yes, we are expecting a news conference in half an hour | :59:49. | :59:55. | |
approximately. The press officer is making some statements right now | :59:56. | :00:01. | |
actually. It will be interesting to hear what she says. | :00:02. | :00:02. | |
Thank you very much. Hello, it's Tuesday, | :00:03. | :00:12. | |
it's ten o'clock. I'm Victoria Derbyshire, | :00:13. | :00:14. | |
welcome to the programme if you've Breaking news this morning - | :00:15. | :00:17. | |
an Egyptair passenger plane has All the passengers on Egyptian plane | :00:18. | :00:27. | |
that was hijacked and forced to land in Cyprus have been released. The | :00:28. | :00:33. | |
hijacker is believed to have said he was carrying explosives and is | :00:34. | :00:37. | |
reported to have asked for asylum and demanded to see his Cypriot | :00:38. | :00:42. | |
ex-wife. Up to eight British people were thought to have been on board. | :00:43. | :00:49. | |
We will bring you the latest. This unverified image is thought to | :00:50. | :00:51. | |
be the man who hijacked the plane. Most of the passengers on board the | :00:52. | :01:05. | |
hijacked Egyptair plane which was forced to land in Cyprus have been | :01:06. | :01:09. | |
freed. It is reported that the hijacker said he had a suicide vest | :01:10. | :01:13. | |
on all with him and had been asking for asylum. The Reuters newsagency | :01:14. | :01:20. | |
says the hijacker is a professor of veterinary medicine at Alexandria | :01:21. | :01:24. | |
University. The UK is investigating reports that | :01:25. | :01:27. | |
three British people were on board a handful of people -- were among a | :01:28. | :01:33. | |
handful of people left on board the plane, although we have now been | :01:34. | :01:36. | |
told there is nobody at all left on board except for the hijacker | :01:37. | :01:39. | |
himself. This unverified image is thought to | :01:40. | :01:42. | |
be the hijacker. It has been reported that he may have personal | :01:43. | :01:47. | |
image and has asked for a letter to be delivered to his extremist right, | :01:48. | :01:50. | |
who is thought to be living in Cyprus. -- delivered to his exchange | :01:51. | :01:59. | |
life. -- estranged wife. The aeroplane is now on the ground | :02:00. | :02:04. | |
at Larnaca airport, having been taken over at Alexandria. We | :02:05. | :02:07. | |
understand that flights from Larnaca are being diverted to Paphos. | :02:08. | :02:11. | |
Our correspondent in Cairo is Ranyah Sabry. | :02:12. | :02:14. | |
She has been keeping us up to date with the latest. What do we know? | :02:15. | :02:21. | |
The passengers and crew on board the plane are safe in the airport, they | :02:22. | :02:25. | |
have left the airport. The hijacker remains on the plane on his own. A | :02:26. | :02:30. | |
huge sigh of relief at the airport in Larnaca. We know that the | :02:31. | :02:35. | |
hijacker wanted to meet his ex-wife who resides in Cyprus, we believe | :02:36. | :02:39. | |
she is on our way to the airport or has maybe arrived by now. Any | :02:40. | :02:45. | |
terrorist motivations have been ruled out, it is not a terrorist | :02:46. | :02:50. | |
attack and not motivated by any ideological or political reasons, it | :02:51. | :02:56. | |
is as simple as a love stricken man searching for the love of his life, | :02:57. | :03:01. | |
who resides in Cyprus and who is on her way to the airport to meet her | :03:02. | :03:08. | |
ex-husband. What sort of questions will be asked of Egyptian security | :03:09. | :03:11. | |
as a result of what has happened this morning? First it has to be | :03:12. | :03:16. | |
established whether this man got on the plane in Saudi Arabia or in | :03:17. | :03:23. | |
Egypt's Alexandria airport. It is not clear. It is not clear either | :03:24. | :03:28. | |
whether he was in hold of any weapon or arms. The pilot reported that the | :03:29. | :03:32. | |
passenger informed him he was in hold of an explosive belt, whether | :03:33. | :03:37. | |
it was on him or in his luggage was not clear. Nobody confirmed that the | :03:38. | :03:42. | |
man was in hold of a weapon, he could have been bluffing all along, | :03:43. | :03:46. | |
he could have been claiming to be in hold of arms and weapons, the | :03:47. | :03:50. | |
weapons could be as light as a knife or as huge as a suicide or explosive | :03:51. | :03:56. | |
belt. It is not clear, that is up to investigations both, I believe, by | :03:57. | :04:02. | |
the Egyptian authorities, the Saudi authorities and aviation security | :04:03. | :04:07. | |
experts who would be pretty interested in this incident, | :04:08. | :04:09. | |
especially that hijacking planes is something that has not happened | :04:10. | :04:14. | |
worldwide for quite some time, it is a revival of something that has been | :04:15. | :04:17. | |
dormant for decades and needs to be looked into thoroughly before | :04:18. | :04:22. | |
decisions are made or judgments are made. | :04:23. | :04:27. | |
I will just pause for a moment to show the audience the latest | :04:28. | :04:31. | |
pictures that we have, which apparently show members of the crew | :04:32. | :04:37. | |
getting off the hijacked plane. Any second now, hopefully. Members of | :04:38. | :04:43. | |
the crew recently getting off the plane, along with most of the rest | :04:44. | :04:48. | |
of the passengers. We will just have a look at that now. That looks like | :04:49. | :04:53. | |
a crew member on their phone as they emerge from the aircraft and move | :04:54. | :04:56. | |
down the steps. For those on board, Ranyah, this Mr | :04:57. | :05:15. | |
been absolutely terrifying? It was supposed to be very terrifying. -- | :05:16. | :05:21. | |
this must have been absolutely terrifying? But for the images that | :05:22. | :05:24. | |
we have seen the passengers getting onto the bus, they seemed calm and | :05:25. | :05:30. | |
composed, nobody was hurrying, I am sure they were relieved but it did | :05:31. | :05:35. | |
seem like they were ex-the rinsing stressful times on the plane. -- | :05:36. | :05:40. | |
experiencing stressful times. And at Housesteads saw them off, she made | :05:41. | :05:46. | |
sure everyone left, she did not show signs of tension, try to join them | :05:47. | :05:51. | |
or run with them, she calmly looked at them, made sure everybody was | :05:52. | :05:55. | |
safe and on the bus and then re-entered the plane, which gives an | :05:56. | :05:59. | |
impression that she was quite composed and that matters inside the | :06:00. | :06:04. | |
plane were not as tense as one would tend to believe in such a situation | :06:05. | :06:10. | |
they hijacked a plane. Just to let you know, Ranyah, just coming into | :06:11. | :06:16. | |
us, the reported hijacker of the plane denies involvement. In remarks | :06:17. | :06:27. | |
to BBC Arabic, the veterinary professor at the University of | :06:28. | :06:29. | |
Alexandria said he was a passenger on the plane and was evacuated from | :06:30. | :06:35. | |
it, along with other passengers at Larnaca airport in Cyprus. So this | :06:36. | :06:48. | |
man, Ibrahimovic, -- this man, Ibrahim, said he was a passenger on | :06:49. | :06:53. | |
the plane, he did not attempt to hijack it and was released from the | :06:54. | :06:56. | |
plane along with various other passengers. The name was circulated | :06:57. | :07:02. | |
in Egyptian media as the person who was the hijacker. We said earlier | :07:03. | :07:07. | |
that he was a professor of veterinary medicine at Alexandria | :07:08. | :07:11. | |
University. This is not correct, this man was just a passenger. The | :07:12. | :07:16. | |
hijacker was supposedly identified by his seat on the plane, she is | :07:17. | :07:23. | |
believed to have been 38K, but it got link to this gentleman, who says | :07:24. | :07:31. | |
he was just a passenger. We are back to square one, we do not know who | :07:32. | :07:36. | |
the hijacker is, except that he is Egyptian and his wife lives in | :07:37. | :07:40. | |
Cyprus, he has sent her a letter already and asked to meet her. These | :07:41. | :07:44. | |
pieces of information are the ones that we know and are sure of, but | :07:45. | :07:49. | |
the exact name and age remains to be seen. It is not the professor of | :07:50. | :07:54. | |
veterinary medicine at Alexandria University, for the time being. | :07:55. | :07:58. | |
Let's hear from the Cypriot president, who has ruled out | :07:59. | :08:02. | |
terrorism being behind the hijacking. We can hear from him now. | :08:03. | :08:08. | |
It seems that at least 49 of the passengers have been released. This | :08:09. | :08:17. | |
is (INAUDIBLE) , I have to say. We are doing our | :08:18. | :08:23. | |
utmost in order for everyone to be released safe and to give an end to | :08:24. | :08:31. | |
this unprecedented... In any case, it is not something which has to do | :08:32. | :08:35. | |
with terrorism. Do you know what I mean? | :08:36. | :08:42. | |
LAUGHTER REPORTER: Can you confirm a debit | :08:43. | :08:47. | |
thing was about a woman? Though Blau always there is a woman! | :08:48. | :08:54. | |
LAUGHTER STUDIO: A couple of moments of | :08:55. | :09:00. | |
levity, always there is a woman involved. We are awaiting a news | :09:01. | :09:06. | |
conference in Cairo. You can see them getting ready. The Egyptian | :09:07. | :09:10. | |
civil aviation ministry is about to hold a news conference into the | :09:11. | :09:14. | |
Egyptair plane that was hijacked, so many more details to come, clearly, | :09:15. | :09:19. | |
so many questions that the journalists will want to ask the | :09:20. | :09:22. | |
officials. As soon as it begins we will bring it to you live. | :09:23. | :09:28. | |
Earlier I spoke to Matthew Finn, and aviation security expert. It is a | :09:29. | :09:34. | |
very stressful situation. I come back to the crew, who will hopefully | :09:35. | :09:40. | |
remember their training, they are well trained and are an asset in | :09:41. | :09:45. | |
situations like this. They will be keeping communication lines going, | :09:46. | :09:47. | |
hopefully providing a buffer between the hijacker and the passengers, | :09:48. | :09:53. | |
continuing in their duty of care to look after the safety and well-being | :09:54. | :09:57. | |
of passengers so there is no direct interaction between the hijacker and | :09:58. | :10:01. | |
the passengers themselves. Given the discussion this morning about | :10:02. | :10:05. | |
nationality, it was possibly the crew that had to get the travel | :10:06. | :10:09. | |
document to reveal who was from which country around the world, | :10:10. | :10:14. | |
providing basic information and water, all of these things are | :10:15. | :10:18. | |
really important to keep the situation under control and keep | :10:19. | :10:23. | |
communication flowing around the aircraft and with people on the | :10:24. | :10:27. | |
ground. Clearly negotiations must have been going on earlier in order | :10:28. | :10:31. | |
to release those passengers who are Egyptian? About absolutely even to | :10:32. | :10:39. | |
get the stairs to the aircraft. It would have required a dialogue to be | :10:40. | :10:44. | |
established. It is good news. As soon as there is communication there | :10:45. | :10:48. | |
is the opportunity to affect an outcome and start mediation and | :10:49. | :10:51. | |
negotiation. It is all very positive, as is the release of the | :10:52. | :10:57. | |
majority of passengers, and it was reassuring to see the calm manner in | :10:58. | :11:00. | |
which they were released from the aircraft. Obviously our attention | :11:01. | :11:04. | |
now remains on those passengers and crew who remain in the aircraft and | :11:05. | :11:11. | |
understanding that the slides of communication remain open, and a | :11:12. | :11:15. | |
dialogue can continue to be established to effect a safe outcome | :11:16. | :11:20. | |
for everybody involved. Aviation security expert Matthew Finn. | :11:21. | :11:29. | |
Let's talk again to the British journalist for the Times newspaper | :11:30. | :11:43. | |
based in Cyprus, Michael Theodulou. What is the question you would need | :11:44. | :11:50. | |
answering this stage? One to confirm that all the passengers had been | :11:51. | :11:55. | |
released, or most of them were, and that his motives are personal, as is | :11:56. | :12:00. | |
reported by the Cypriot media, and the hijacking is not part -- the | :12:01. | :12:09. | |
hijacker is not part of a terrorist group with a terrorist profile. Did | :12:10. | :12:15. | |
he have explosives or not? There was an initial report that he had a | :12:16. | :12:18. | |
suicide belt, but now the reports are that he does not have | :12:19. | :12:23. | |
explosives. We spoke to another aviation expert earlier who said | :12:24. | :12:28. | |
that a pilot should have confidence in his security systems on the | :12:29. | :12:33. | |
ground to know immediately whether a passenger saying they have a suicide | :12:34. | :12:39. | |
vest is telling the truth or not. Yes, indeed, but at the same time I | :12:40. | :12:45. | |
assume that if a pilot is facing a threat by a man who seems to have | :12:46. | :12:49. | |
something, he might have been pretending to have his finger on a | :12:50. | :12:53. | |
detonation button, he would not take any risks. I wonder if someone had, | :12:54. | :13:01. | |
in fact, got some explosive on. All pilots are trained in this. The | :13:02. | :13:05. | |
incident would have raised issues about security at airports following | :13:06. | :13:14. | |
the other incident last year. Investigations into what has | :13:15. | :13:18. | |
happened are clearly at a very, very early stage, and we know little | :13:19. | :13:23. | |
about the hijacker. We certainly don't have very much confirmed | :13:24. | :13:25. | |
information about this particular hijacker. But people will have to | :13:26. | :13:35. | |
look into his background, potentially the history of his | :13:36. | :13:39. | |
mental health, why he thought this was the right thing to do to try to | :13:40. | :13:43. | |
draw the attention of his strange partner? It is a very bizarre | :13:44. | :13:52. | |
incident. I think it will be sorted fairly quickly, he is not placing | :13:53. | :13:59. | |
any demands that would be hard for any officials here or wrought to try | :14:00. | :14:05. | |
to meet. He apparently just wants to see his ex-wife, who is reportedly a | :14:06. | :14:12. | |
Cypriot here. He dropped off a letter in Arabic on the tarmac | :14:13. | :14:17. | |
apparently addressed to her. Apparently she is being taken to the | :14:18. | :14:22. | |
airport in case he wants to see her. Maybe he is just a man in a very bad | :14:23. | :14:27. | |
personal situation who has made a very bad, reckless decision. That | :14:28. | :14:34. | |
will become clear in time once more and needed things have been sorted | :14:35. | :14:38. | |
out, like checking there are no explosives on board and everybody is | :14:39. | :14:42. | |
safe. Bearing in mind that checking for explosives is yet to happen, | :14:43. | :14:47. | |
hearing the president of Cyprus and the president of the European | :14:48. | :14:51. | |
Parliament both joking, as we did a few moments ago, about the hijacked, | :14:52. | :14:55. | |
Parliament both joking, as we did a suggesting it was all about a woman | :14:56. | :14:59. | |
and was not a serious threat, I wonder if people will think it's | :15:00. | :15:07. | |
inappropriate this stage? I have not seen the remarks yet, but a report | :15:08. | :15:13. | |
said he said it was not really a terrorist incident. Clearly it would | :15:14. | :15:18. | |
have terrorised everybody on board the plane, it is a serials incident, | :15:19. | :15:24. | |
but if the president had information that he was not making terror | :15:25. | :15:27. | |
related demands, it would have been a relief to the Cypriot authorities. | :15:28. | :15:34. | |
So apparently the situation will be diffused soon. | :15:35. | :15:39. | |
I'm reading comments from a man called Ibrahim who was named | :15:40. | :15:46. | |
incorrectly earlier as the hijacker, named by some Egyptian media outlets | :15:47. | :15:52. | |
as a Professor of Veterinary medicine from Alexandria university. | :15:53. | :15:56. | |
He's now said, I was not the hijacker, I was simply a personing | :15:57. | :16:01. | |
on that plane and was released alongside other passengers and had | :16:02. | :16:03. | |
absolutely nothing to do with hijacking the plane. He's also | :16:04. | :16:09. | |
described what happened on the plane, and this has been translated | :16:10. | :16:14. | |
for us. We did not know what was going on, we got on board the plane | :16:15. | :16:19. | |
and were surprised the crew took all our passports which is unusual for a | :16:20. | :16:24. | |
domestic flight. After a while, we realised the altitude was getting | :16:25. | :16:29. | |
higher. Then we knew we were heading to Cyprus. At first, the crew told | :16:30. | :16:33. | |
us there was a problem with the plane and only later did we know it | :16:34. | :16:38. | |
was hijacked. Those are comments from one of the passengers on the | :16:39. | :16:45. | |
plane, Dr Ibrahim Samahar named by some media outlets as being the | :16:46. | :16:53. | |
hijacker. He says absolutely not. Clearly, there was confusion early | :16:54. | :16:56. | |
on, on that plane, when it was diverted? There was. The fact that | :16:57. | :17:04. | |
he was mistakenly named shows that we should take the reports with some | :17:05. | :17:08. | |
caution at this time. There have been very few official statements | :17:09. | :17:11. | |
from the Cypriots or the Egyptian authorities about this. In the | :17:12. | :17:15. | |
absence of that, and given the fact people have mobile phones now and | :17:16. | :17:19. | |
social media, a lot of reports circulate that could be incorrect. | :17:20. | :17:29. | |
The other thing the passengers didn't apparently realise, it seemed | :17:30. | :17:32. | |
the pilot and crew were doing a fairly good job of trying to keep | :17:33. | :17:36. | |
the passengers from panicking and knowing the possible peril that they | :17:37. | :17:38. | |
faced. Thank you very much. Earlier, we | :17:39. | :17:48. | |
spoke to a Cypriot correspondent at longer coo Airport. She explained | :17:49. | :17:52. | |
that the hijacker was thought to be the only personal left on board the | :17:53. | :18:01. | |
plane. The latest is that the hijacker, from what we understand, | :18:02. | :18:04. | |
is completely by himself on the plane. They let off the last five | :18:05. | :18:10. | |
passengers of crew from what we could see. He is on the plane right | :18:11. | :18:17. | |
now. What we know is that he is talking to the Civil Aviation | :18:18. | :18:24. | |
Authority and they are talking about his requests of whatever he's | :18:25. | :18:32. | |
asking, to the crisis centre, which Larnaca Airport -- at Larnaca | :18:33. | :18:36. | |
Airport. We are waiting to be briefed by the crisis centre, | :18:37. | :18:43. | |
hopefully soon. It's quite difficult to hear you, but did you say the | :18:44. | :18:48. | |
hijacker is the only person left on board or did I mishear you. Yes. | :18:49. | :18:53. | |
That is exactly what we have, that is the latest information that we | :18:54. | :18:57. | |
have. So the pilot and the rest of the crew are off the plane? Off the | :18:58. | :19:04. | |
plane, exactly. The passengers were taken to the new airport at the | :19:05. | :19:11. | |
arrivals. The airport is closed. All planes have been diverted to Paphos | :19:12. | :19:21. | |
Airport and there are basically no planes landing or departing here. | :19:22. | :19:25. | |
The situation is still fluid and the information that is coming through | :19:26. | :19:30. | |
is very slow. I don't know if you have heard this, but it's being | :19:31. | :19:34. | |
reported by one French news agency, that the ex-wife of this hijacker is | :19:35. | :19:39. | |
being brought to the airport because the hijacker has demanded to see | :19:40. | :19:46. | |
her? I have information but it's unconfirmed, that he was married to | :19:47. | :19:54. | |
someone from the Larnaca district and they have four children and that | :19:55. | :20:03. | |
he is making some demands. That is information that is also not | :20:04. | :20:15. | |
confirmed. We are expecting a news conference from Cairo where the | :20:16. | :20:17. | |
Civil Aviation Authority is expecting to hold a news conference. | :20:18. | :20:20. | |
We are not sure when but any time soon. As soon as it happens we'll | :20:21. | :20:25. | |
bring you that live. Much more detail after the Egyptair lane was | :20:26. | :20:32. | |
hijacked and forced to land in Cyprus -- Egypt airline plane was | :20:33. | :20:37. | |
hijacked and forced to land. Jonny Dymond is still with us. Give us the | :20:38. | :20:44. | |
background? This plane came from Saudi Arabia, stopped in Alexandria | :20:45. | :20:49. | |
then was many don't go to Cairo. The crew found out that one passenger | :20:50. | :20:52. | |
was carrying something that looked very much like a suicide belt or a | :20:53. | :21:00. | |
belt strapped with explosives. The passenger told the crew that he | :21:01. | :21:03. | |
wanted to change the route of the plane and at this point we enter the | :21:04. | :21:08. | |
world of speculation... I'm going to pause for a second because I think | :21:09. | :21:11. | |
the news conference is about to start. | :21:12. | :21:24. | |
There is some questions that I cannance and some information I can | :21:25. | :21:30. | |
give -- can answer and some information I can give you. We have | :21:31. | :21:33. | |
other information but I will not divulge it at the moment. We are | :21:34. | :21:38. | |
talking about the security situation and we cannot give information that | :21:39. | :21:43. | |
will represent danger because the time is not right what has happened | :21:44. | :21:54. | |
today quickly. This morning at 6. 50 local time the captain of the plane | :21:55. | :22:06. | |
MS181, which should have taken off from towards Cairo, at 6. 06, it did | :22:07. | :22:14. | |
in fact take off at 6. 30. It was an Airbus A 320. It was hijacked and we | :22:15. | :22:19. | |
were informed there was a passenger with a suicide belt who had asked | :22:20. | :22:22. | |
that the plane be diverted. It was decided it would land in | :22:23. | :22:42. | |
Cyprus. There are various passengers from various nationalities, | :22:43. | :22:47. | |
including an Egyptian who boarded the plane from Alexandria to Cairo | :22:48. | :22:50. | |
and others would go in further. At 7. 05, we have started to deal with | :22:51. | :22:58. | |
the situation in the form of managing the crisis through the | :22:59. | :23:02. | |
crisis centre present at this aviation centre. We can say the | :23:03. | :23:14. | |
following. At 7. 50, the plane landed at Larnaca Airport and then | :23:15. | :23:18. | |
various negotiations started with the high St James' Park. According | :23:19. | :23:22. | |
to our information and information is from a reliable source -- | :23:23. | :23:32. | |
negotiations started with the hijacker. According to our | :23:33. | :23:38. | |
information, we don't know whether the suicide belt was virtual or real | :23:39. | :23:43. | |
but we were dealing with the situation as it represented a | :23:44. | :23:48. | |
danger. Ongoing negotiations with the hijacker and the situation at | :23:49. | :23:54. | |
the plane now. There are seven people still inside the plane, the | :23:55. | :24:01. | |
captain and his aid, one woman still with us, one security officer and | :24:02. | :24:04. | |
three passengers. I can't talk about the nationalities | :24:05. | :24:20. | |
at this stage. This is a security situation and please forgive me | :24:21. | :24:23. | |
because I will not give you the nationalities at this stage. There | :24:24. | :24:35. | |
is contradiction. The numbers I have in my possession, I will let you | :24:36. | :24:49. | |
know. I'm not sure about the suicide belt. We are dealing with the | :24:50. | :25:04. | |
situation as if it's a real one. On the other hand, I would like to add | :25:05. | :25:09. | |
that our call centre and through the crisis centre, we have contacted the | :25:10. | :25:16. | |
families of the passengers and the passengers inside Cyprus, the plane | :25:17. | :25:20. | |
will be leaving within an hour flying to Larnaca. We were not going | :25:21. | :25:26. | |
to wait until 1600, we'll send a plane to get our passengers as soon | :25:27. | :25:32. | |
as possible. It will depart at 12. 30 local time. | :25:33. | :25:37. | |
I cannot give you the nationalities. Three passengers still on board the | :25:38. | :26:04. | |
plane. Are you dealing with the situation alone or with the Cypriot | :26:05. | :26:07. | |
authorities? Again, there is nothing I can give you. I am dealing with | :26:08. | :26:20. | |
the situation has it is. The crew, captain and copilot and the security | :26:21. | :26:28. | |
officer must deal with this. Three passengers are still inside the | :26:29. | :26:29. | |
plane. There is more than one party dealing | :26:30. | :26:41. | |
with the conducting of the negotiations. We have been | :26:42. | :26:52. | |
reassuring people, we are dealing with people that are our brothers | :26:53. | :26:56. | |
and sons, we are eager that their security is our priority. But | :26:57. | :27:05. | |
dealing with these people, our colleagues are dealing with it and | :27:06. | :27:08. | |
that has been done at the appropriate level. | :27:09. | :27:10. | |
I will carry on this side. Up to now, I cannot say that there | :27:11. | :27:31. | |
are any demands from the hijackers. There are negotiations ongoing and | :27:32. | :27:36. | |
with the authorities on site so that we can determine what demands there | :27:37. | :27:39. | |
are. Please do not listen to rumours that | :27:40. | :27:48. | |
there are demands also. Up to now, we have not heard any real demands | :27:49. | :27:56. | |
that we can state and announce to you. | :27:57. | :28:00. | |
Yes. We have information but I'm not going to divulge it. | :28:01. | :28:13. | |
Nobody can tell for sure. Nobody can say how long the negotiations will | :28:14. | :28:17. | |
take. Our fundamental issue is our people on board. Our sons on board, | :28:18. | :28:26. | |
our passengers, their safety. We'll carry on negotiating to make sure | :28:27. | :28:30. | |
safety is paramount using all the means. Negotiations can take as long | :28:31. | :28:35. | |
as possible. Experts are dealing with the situation, that is their | :28:36. | :28:41. | |
job, please give them enough time and no conflicting statements so | :28:42. | :28:44. | |
that they can carry out their work as best as possible. | :28:45. | :29:01. | |
I haven't said that. I have no other information. | :29:02. | :29:22. | |
This is not the time to talk about this. Carry on, carry on. Carry on. | :29:23. | :29:31. | |
Is there any information about the hijacker? | :29:32. | :29:39. | |
TRANSLATION: This issue, you should understand, there are things we | :29:40. | :30:12. | |
cannot say. Running and chasing information should not affect our | :30:13. | :30:16. | |
instinct. Please leave others to carry out their job and their work | :30:17. | :30:23. | |
calmly, negotiating. We cannot broadcast information that might | :30:24. | :30:28. | |
influence the final result of the negotiation. Once we are sure about | :30:29. | :30:32. | |
the safety of the people, we will announce all the information | :30:33. | :30:37. | |
available. I will not give you names. Whoever mentions names should | :30:38. | :30:44. | |
shoulder the responsibility is. I would like to say that we are not | :30:45. | :30:49. | |
going to delve into names. I would like to keep saying what I | :30:50. | :31:07. | |
said, there will be surprises, but I will not pre-empt the situation. | :31:08. | :31:15. | |
What would benefit? Please, let us concentrate on the safety of the | :31:16. | :31:21. | |
people and leave time and space to our negotiators to deal with the | :31:22. | :31:28. | |
situation. Statements and throwing names here and there and an official | :31:29. | :31:32. | |
statements do not serve our work, which is under way. -- and | :31:33. | :31:35. | |
unofficial statements. Of course, there are challenges | :31:36. | :31:48. | |
everywhere, and it is normal. There are security measures. When | :31:49. | :31:53. | |
something like this happens, every security quarter would make sure | :31:54. | :31:58. | |
what has happened is and how their work is contacted. But that doesn't | :31:59. | :32:04. | |
mean that if I arrested one person who is suspicious, the story ends | :32:05. | :32:05. | |
there. TRANSLATION: Please, one at a time, | :32:06. | :32:30. | |
please, just one question at a time. This is not my decision. This is a | :32:31. | :32:37. | |
decision that would taken alongside those who are negotiating with the | :32:38. | :32:39. | |
hijacker. -- that would be taken. We will leave that to the security | :32:40. | :32:54. | |
authorities to deal with this situation. | :32:55. | :33:01. | |
I have the nationalities of the foreign travellers, but I will not | :33:02. | :33:04. | |
announce them here. Can you say it again? REPORTER: I | :33:05. | :33:27. | |
would like to ask about the security checks at Alexandria airport. How | :33:28. | :33:36. | |
was he armed? If you are talking about the security procedure at the | :33:37. | :33:44. | |
Alexandria airport, we don't know yet how he got the equipment he has, | :33:45. | :33:52. | |
and we don't know whether it is real or not. This will come as an outcome | :33:53. | :34:00. | |
of the investigation we are after. The reality is that we have a | :34:01. | :34:04. | |
hijacker on board a plane, we are not sure whether what he has is a | :34:05. | :34:11. | |
true threat to the aircraft, but we are dealing with it as a real | :34:12. | :34:15. | |
threat, because we cannot take any risks except dealing with it as a | :34:16. | :34:19. | |
serious situation. REPORTER: TRANSLATION: How did he | :34:20. | :34:48. | |
get access to the plane, knowing he could have had a Swiss belt, and | :34:49. | :34:58. | |
there has been an agreement signed with a security company to oversee | :34:59. | :35:02. | |
the security at the airport? TRANSLATION: Do you really think | :35:03. | :35:08. | |
this is the time to talk about other issues, complex issues? This is not | :35:09. | :35:13. | |
the time, please. Let us deal with a crisis like we are doing, but then | :35:14. | :35:18. | |
we will go into details at a later stage. We have other pressing | :35:19. | :35:20. | |
matters that we have to do. The number of passengers on board, | :35:21. | :35:36. | |
we do have the up to date information. | :35:37. | :35:48. | |
TRANSLATION: I said to you, I cannot mention the name of the hijacker, I | :35:49. | :35:55. | |
cannot name the nationalities of the passengers until we are 100% sure. | :35:56. | :36:01. | |
As long as we are not sure, we cannot say anything else. I didn't | :36:02. | :36:09. | |
say that, what I am saying is that I am not going to go into the names | :36:10. | :36:15. | |
until we have confirmed information about the name, and we will choose | :36:16. | :36:18. | |
the right time to announce the names. I would like to ask you to | :36:19. | :36:25. | |
look into the field, that we are in a crisis and dealing with a crisis | :36:26. | :36:28. | |
is different to dealing with matters in a normal time. Yes, go ahead, | :36:29. | :36:39. | |
Sir?. REPORTER: The Egyptian government | :36:40. | :36:53. | |
retained one company in December or January to look at airport security | :36:54. | :37:00. | |
in Egypt. To reassure, primarily, the Egyptian traveller, but also | :37:01. | :37:02. | |
foreign travellers and to arrest will stop I believe that this report | :37:03. | :37:11. | |
was released confidentially to you and to senior people in ejection | :37:12. | :37:16. | |
security a month or so ago. The British extended their travel | :37:17. | :37:22. | |
suspension to Sharm el-Sheikh, and now we have the civil aviation | :37:23. | :37:26. | |
incident. My question is this, can you reassure bursty Egyptian people | :37:27. | :37:34. | |
that civil aviation is hijacker free here? This guy did get on the plane. | :37:35. | :37:43. | |
And are you sure that, having rejected a Russian offer to look at | :37:44. | :37:47. | |
security on their planes, what can you tell us about the findings of | :37:48. | :37:50. | |
this report? Number one, I have not seen any | :37:51. | :37:55. | |
reports so far, they have not submitted their final report yet. | :37:56. | :38:00. | |
But Egyptian security and Egyptian airport security is being monitored | :38:01. | :38:03. | |
by different authorities. Our security teams were in very close | :38:04. | :38:09. | |
contact with these authorities addressing the observations and | :38:10. | :38:15. | |
findings they had. So far, we have been able to successfully rectify | :38:16. | :38:19. | |
this. However, you may ask this question, and I think it is a good | :38:20. | :38:23. | |
question, but let's address this after we finalise the incident and | :38:24. | :38:28. | |
make sure that our people are safe, and after we investigate how this | :38:29. | :38:31. | |
passenger was able to get whatever it with that he has on board. I | :38:32. | :38:36. | |
can't make any statements now, because we haven't completed the | :38:37. | :38:45. | |
security investigation. REPORTER: I appreciate that, could you give us | :38:46. | :38:48. | |
the accounts in Europe that you provided to (INAUDIBLE) | :38:49. | :38:56. | |
? Let me finish in Arabic, then I will do it in English. Can I do | :38:57. | :39:00. | |
that? TRANSLATION: I will not go into | :39:01. | :39:32. | |
details. The plane is in Cyprus. I would like to deal with the | :39:33. | :39:36. | |
situation as it is. Two more questions, because I need to leave. | :39:37. | :39:49. | |
I will announce this when we have the confirmed information and full | :39:50. | :39:50. | |
information. There was an (INAUDIBLE) | :39:51. | :40:21. | |
Broadcast by most news agencies and channels, what can you tell us about | :40:22. | :40:27. | |
it? TRANSLATION: What you have just said | :40:28. | :40:30. | |
confirms why I do not want to mention names until investigations | :40:31. | :40:36. | |
are completed. Please just allow me that. | :40:37. | :40:47. | |
TRANSLATION: Yes, this man has been subjected to this because there are | :40:48. | :40:52. | |
colleagues who get their information from unconfirmed sources. They have | :40:53. | :41:07. | |
broadcast him. Can I just finish, please? | :41:08. | :41:14. | |
I am here so I can provide you with the final information, which we can | :41:15. | :41:20. | |
use to deal with the situation as it is. I want the final information. | :41:21. | :41:29. | |
The names, we do not have any names at the moment. | :41:30. | :41:37. | |
If we can deny it, we would have done so, but let us compete our | :41:38. | :41:41. | |
investigation and the negotiations. We will issue a statement at the | :41:42. | :41:49. | |
right time about the names. REPORTER: TRANSLATION: Why did the | :41:50. | :42:26. | |
captain yield for that amount of the alleged hijacker? TRANSLATION: We | :42:27. | :42:32. | |
will look into this issue when we sit around with our cap on and we | :42:33. | :42:37. | |
get all the information from him. -- with our captain. Excuse me, I need | :42:38. | :42:45. | |
to leave. I am very sorry. Because we have other things to do. So we | :42:46. | :42:52. | |
will provide you... Everybody knows our website, Egyptian air, and there | :42:53. | :43:06. | |
will be preliminary statement that will inform you about the | :43:07. | :43:08. | |
development of the situation, thank you. | :43:09. | :43:13. | |
So that news conference from Egypt is my Chris Liddle aviation | :43:14. | :43:16. | |
minister, the most important thing to draw from it is that the | :43:17. | :43:20. | |
situation involving the hijacked plane is ongoing, there are seven | :43:21. | :43:24. | |
people, including three passengers, still on board, completely | :43:25. | :43:27. | |
contradicting earlier reports which said everyone had been released, | :43:28. | :43:32. | |
Jonny Diamond? It looked like all the passengers and some of the crew | :43:33. | :43:36. | |
had been released, but the minister was very clear, seven people on | :43:37. | :43:42. | |
board, three passengers, two... I think the captain, the co-pilot, a | :43:43. | :43:45. | |
stewardess and the security officer were the others identified. It is a | :43:46. | :43:52. | |
very confusing situation. It was confusing, for example, the minister | :43:53. | :43:55. | |
said that no demands have been made and yet we were very clearly under | :43:56. | :43:58. | |
the impression that the hijacker had demanded to see his ex-wife. The | :43:59. | :44:04. | |
Minister says that the hijacker had us to go to either Turkey or Cyprus, | :44:05. | :44:09. | |
if he is so keen on speaking to his ex-wife in Cyprus, why was he happy | :44:10. | :44:16. | |
to go to Turkey? We have colleagues from BBC Arabic interviewing | :44:17. | :44:20. | |
passengers as they came off the plane, they have spoken of the | :44:21. | :44:23. | |
situation that occurred as the hijacking taking place, and what | :44:24. | :44:26. | |
appears to have happened first of all is that the crew took all the | :44:27. | :44:30. | |
passports from those on the plane, then passengers noticed that the | :44:31. | :44:34. | |
plane was gaining altitude, which it should not have been doing for a | :44:35. | :44:38. | |
domestic flight, they were informed they were going to Cyprus for no | :44:39. | :44:42. | |
apparent reason and then they were informed that a hijacking had taken | :44:43. | :44:47. | |
place. What the Minister made clear was that they don't know if the | :44:48. | :44:51. | |
suicide vest or belt that the hijacker said he had is real or | :44:52. | :44:58. | |
virtual, as the minister put it, but they are dealing with it as though | :44:59. | :45:02. | |
it is real, because they had to? Absolutely. I thought we saw the | :45:03. | :45:06. | |
more serious side to this hijacking from the minister than we heard | :45:07. | :45:10. | |
perhaps from the Cypriot authorities or the debate raging on social media | :45:11. | :45:15. | |
about this. He is saying to some degree it does not matter if it is | :45:16. | :45:19. | |
real or not, we had to take it seriously, and it clearly is being | :45:20. | :45:22. | |
so. He is pushing back very firmly on questions about security in | :45:23. | :45:27. | |
Egypt, a matter of immense sensitivity giving the bombing of a | :45:28. | :45:31. | |
Russian jet in late 2015, a bombing Fed have originated from the | :45:32. | :45:37. | |
Egyptian airport of Sharm el-Sheikh. Lots of questions, but still people | :45:38. | :45:40. | |
on board, still passengers and crew on board, still a hijacker who may | :45:41. | :45:44. | |
or may not have explosives, and lots of unanswered questions. | :45:45. | :45:50. | |
A very serious situation clearly. The minister said he does not know | :45:51. | :45:55. | |
thing negotiations are going to take but what is absolutely the priority | :45:56. | :45:59. | |
is the safety and security of those still on board? Yes. Interestingly, | :46:00. | :46:04. | |
he also suggested there were more than just one party negotiating with | :46:05. | :46:08. | |
the hijacker. He suggested there were at least two parties now that | :46:09. | :46:11. | |
may be that the Cypriot authorities want to have a role and yet it's the | :46:12. | :46:17. | |
Egyptians taking the lead role. We still don't have an identification | :46:18. | :46:21. | |
for the hijacker. We previously thought he was perhaps a little | :46:22. | :46:24. | |
impossibly a Professor of Veterinary science from the university in | :46:25. | :46:29. | |
Cairo, that's now been discounted as something that happened in the | :46:30. | :46:33. | |
confusion of the first hour-and-a-half, that | :46:34. | :46:35. | |
misidentification. So we don't know who he is and we don't know for sure | :46:36. | :46:40. | |
what he wants, although there's an enormous amount of rumours about his | :46:41. | :46:46. | |
ex-wife and a letter being thrown down and her coming to the airport. | :46:47. | :46:52. | |
We have some stills of passengers getting off the plane and on to one | :46:53. | :46:56. | |
of the buses that was brought, obviously to take them away from the | :46:57. | :47:02. | |
aircraft. You can see a child there just being | :47:03. | :47:08. | |
carried on to the bus alongside other passengers. These are still | :47:09. | :47:14. | |
images which we have just received here at the BBC. People leaving the | :47:15. | :47:18. | |
plane. This happened much earlier now, at least a couple of hours or | :47:19. | :47:25. | |
so ago. Being escorted on to a bus which was waiting for them. You can | :47:26. | :47:28. | |
see children there as well. It all looks pretty calm, doesn't | :47:29. | :47:37. | |
it? Yes. And well it should do because of course whilst the been a | :47:38. | :47:41. | |
terrifying situation for them, in reality, this hijacking for these | :47:42. | :47:45. | |
passengers as they were released, really only lasted about an | :47:46. | :47:49. | |
hour-and-a-half, two hours, pretty much within minutes of landing they | :47:50. | :47:53. | |
were being released. It looked at that stage when we were talking | :47:54. | :47:57. | |
then, as if this was coming swiftly to a peaceful end. However, the | :47:58. | :48:01. | |
information from the Egyptian officials that there are still seven | :48:02. | :48:05. | |
people on board, three passengers, four members of crew and security, | :48:06. | :48:10. | |
along with the hijacker himself, means that this is still ongoing, | :48:11. | :48:14. | |
still potentially very risky indeed. Obviously those who came off the | :48:15. | :48:18. | |
plane will be immensely relieved. One's thoughts has to be with those | :48:19. | :48:23. | |
who're still there. Those are the live pictures of the stationary | :48:24. | :48:27. | |
plane, as Jonny says, with three passengers still on board. The | :48:28. | :48:32. | |
pilot, copilot, one security officer and one female stewardess and we | :48:33. | :48:42. | |
heard in that live news conference that negotiations are taking place | :48:43. | :48:45. | |
with more than one party with the hijacker. Let's talk to Sally Nabil | :48:46. | :48:56. | |
in Cairo. What are you hear thering? -- hearing there? The latest we have | :48:57. | :49:00. | |
is that Egypt will send a plane to Larnaca as soon as possible to try | :49:01. | :49:05. | |
to bring back the passengers that have been released. Negotiations are | :49:06. | :49:09. | |
under way to release the three passengers who're still inside the | :49:10. | :49:13. | |
plane in addition to four crew members. I'm at the Ministry of | :49:14. | :49:21. | |
Civil aviation where the minister held a press conference. He didn't | :49:22. | :49:25. | |
say what the nationalities of those still in the plane are, but he said, | :49:26. | :49:29. | |
we are doing our best. Apparently, the situation is not related to | :49:30. | :49:32. | |
terrorism, according to the President of Cyprus who said it's | :49:33. | :49:36. | |
apparently a personal issue, the hijacker we don't know who he is | :49:37. | :49:43. | |
yet, but he wanted to contact his ex-wife who lives in Cyprus. There | :49:44. | :49:47. | |
were initial reports suggesting that the hijacker was an Egyptian | :49:48. | :49:54. | |
American called Ibrahim Samahar, a professional. But the BBC BBC spoke | :49:55. | :50:01. | |
to him and he appeared to be one of the passengers and he's in Larnaca | :50:02. | :50:06. | |
Airport. We asked him how the situation was inside the aeroplane | :50:07. | :50:09. | |
and he said it was pretty normal, there was no violence, nothing that | :50:10. | :50:14. | |
aroused their concern or worry, but they just realised that the flight | :50:15. | :50:18. | |
took longer than normal, it usually takes around 30 minutes to go from | :50:19. | :50:22. | |
Alexandria to Cairo, but after some time, they realised they'd been | :50:23. | :50:26. | |
hijacked. We asked if he has seen the hijacker at all but he said he | :50:27. | :50:30. | |
didn't and now they are still in the airport waiting for an Egyptian | :50:31. | :50:33. | |
plane to bring them all back. Authorities say they are doing their | :50:34. | :50:37. | |
best to release those who're still trapped inside. Thank you, Sally | :50:38. | :50:42. | |
Nabil. Good morning, let's bring you | :50:43. | :50:47. | |
up-to-date with the latest: Egypt's civil aviation minister has said | :50:48. | :50:51. | |
contrary to previous media reports, that there are still seven people, | :50:52. | :50:56. | |
including three passengers on board that hijacked Egyptian plane that | :50:57. | :51:00. | |
was forced to divert to Cyprus. At a news conference in the last half | :51:01. | :51:05. | |
hour he said so far the hijacker has not made concrete demands. His | :51:06. | :51:08. | |
motives are not thought to be related to terrorism. | :51:09. | :51:16. | |
Flight MS181 took off from Alexandria en route to Cairo with at | :51:17. | :51:20. | |
least 55 passengers, including 26 foreigners and a seven-member crew. | :51:21. | :51:25. | |
The hijacker who claimed he had a suicide vest or belt, is reported to | :51:26. | :51:31. | |
have asked for the plane to be diverted towards either Turkey or | :51:32. | :51:35. | |
Cyprus. This unverified image is thought to | :51:36. | :51:39. | |
be the man who hijacked the plane. He's thought to be an Egyptian | :51:40. | :51:43. | |
national. Earlier, unconfirmed reports said that he might have | :51:44. | :51:46. | |
personal motives and that he's asked for a letter to be delivered to his | :51:47. | :51:51. | |
estranged wife thought to be living in Cyprus. Those reports are | :51:52. | :51:56. | |
unconfirmed. Here, the Foreign Office has said it's working to | :51:57. | :51:59. | |
establish if there are any British people amongst the passengers. The | :52:00. | :52:03. | |
plane is now on the ground at Larnaca Airport in Cyprus. We also | :52:04. | :52:08. | |
understand that flights to Larnaca are being diverted to Paphos. The | :52:09. | :52:14. | |
Cypriot President earlier ruled out terrorism being behind the | :52:15. | :52:15. | |
hijacking. We can hear from him now. It seems 49 of the passengers have | :52:16. | :52:37. | |
been released. We are doing our utmost to make sure everyone is | :52:38. | :52:43. | |
released safe and to give an end to this unprecedented, in any case it's | :52:44. | :52:46. | |
not something which has to do with terrorism. You know what I mean. | :52:47. | :52:58. | |
REPORTER: Can you confirm that everything was about a woman? Always | :52:59. | :53:00. | |
there is a woman involved! So that was the Cypriot President | :53:01. | :53:14. | |
talking before Egypt's civil aviation minister gave his news | :53:15. | :53:17. | |
conference. That was a much more sombre affair. Let's talk again to | :53:18. | :53:30. | |
David, the Civil Aviation Authority representative. It's believed that | :53:31. | :53:38. | |
the situation is being dealt with as if the suicide belt is real? Yes, I | :53:39. | :53:43. | |
can understand why they are where they are. However, the tragedy about | :53:44. | :53:52. | |
this is that this takes us back to the frequent hijackings pre-9/11. We | :53:53. | :53:56. | |
haven't had another serious hijacking like this one since 9/11 | :53:57. | :54:00. | |
because the measures that came in after 9/11 have been so successful | :54:01. | :54:04. | |
that nobody's succeeded in hijacking an aircraft. So what have we got | :54:05. | :54:10. | |
here? What we've got here is a complete breakdown of faith in the | :54:11. | :54:17. | |
security system. Since particularly in Egypt when the aircraft was blown | :54:18. | :54:18. | |
out of the sky by a bomb in Egypt when the aircraft was blown | :54:19. | :54:24. | |
departure from Sharm El-Sheikh in December last year, I think that | :54:25. | :54:33. | |
this proves there is no longer faith in the security system. The system | :54:34. | :54:36. | |
which should exist all over the world at the moment and has worked | :54:37. | :54:42. | |
since 9/11, the captain should have been able to respond to somebody who | :54:43. | :54:45. | |
claimed to have a security belt by saying, "no, I will not take you to | :54:46. | :54:52. | |
Larnaca because I know you could not possibly be wearing a suicide vest | :54:53. | :54:55. | |
because you could not have got through security with that on board. | :54:56. | :55:03. | |
" So really, what we have got to do is, I don't think there is an | :55:04. | :55:06. | |
explosive but if you want to go somewhere, just get on board a cheap | :55:07. | :55:11. | |
flight to a close destination, say you have got a suicide vest and your | :55:12. | :55:15. | |
captain will take you there. If we are going back to the security Stone | :55:16. | :55:19. | |
Age, that is where we are and this is where this is taking us. | :55:20. | :55:25. | |
OK, thank you. Clearly there'll be consequences for anybody who tries | :55:26. | :55:31. | |
that. Let's talk to Nicholas Zannetos, a journalist at Larnaca | :55:32. | :55:35. | |
Airport where the plane remains and where seven people remain on board, | :55:36. | :55:38. | |
including three passengers. I don't know if you caught the news | :55:39. | :55:41. | |
conference from the civil aviation minister from Egypt. He'd not talk | :55:42. | :55:45. | |
about the demands from the hijacker, he said "I cannot say if there are | :55:46. | :55:49. | |
any demands from the hijacker". What are you hearing there? | :55:50. | :55:56. | |
I can confirm that there are some demands. There was a letter from the | :55:57. | :56:04. | |
hijacker. It was delivered to the police and there were translators | :56:05. | :56:10. | |
here to translate what the letter was saying. So what we are hearing | :56:11. | :56:16. | |
is, this is about a woman. This is the case. | :56:17. | :56:20. | |
I'm going to leave it there, just because it's very difficult to hear | :56:21. | :56:24. | |
you. Apologies to our audience for the | :56:25. | :56:28. | |
qualities of that phone line. Our correspondent Jonny Dymond is here. | :56:29. | :56:32. | |
In terms of summing up, what do we know so far that is confirmed? We | :56:33. | :56:37. | |
know there are seven people still on board, with the hijacker effectively | :56:38. | :56:41. | |
holding them and the plane hostage. We understand that demands have been | :56:42. | :56:44. | |
made, it's mixed nationalities that were on the plane, we know that the | :56:45. | :56:48. | |
vast majority of the passengers have been released from the plane. We | :56:49. | :56:54. | |
believe, from the Egyptian Minister of The save aviation, that no | :56:55. | :56:58. | |
demands have been made, although this contradicts a lot of what we | :56:59. | :57:02. | |
have heard so far. The general picture is one of confusion and | :57:03. | :57:05. | |
conflicting reports throughout the morning. The way we saw this going | :57:06. | :57:09. | |
an hour ago, we thought this would be over, currently there is a | :57:10. | :57:11. | |
hostage situation at Larnaca Airport and the plane is being held by a man | :57:12. | :57:16. | |
or may or may not have explosives strapped to him. We simply don't | :57:17. | :57:21. | |
know. It's a potentially dangerous and clearly terrifying situation for | :57:22. | :57:24. | |
those on board. Many questions to be asked. David was raising one or two | :57:25. | :57:28. | |
of them about security, particularly at some of Egypt's airports and they | :57:29. | :57:32. | |
have had an issue with security in recent months? They had a terrible | :57:33. | :57:37. | |
issue in late 2015, a Russian plane was blown out of the skies in | :57:38. | :57:43. | |
November 2015 after it took off from Sharm El-Sheikh and very quickly a | :57:44. | :57:46. | |
massive security failure was identified. The Egyptian Minister of | :57:47. | :57:52. | |
Save aviation was pushing away questions about a potential security | :57:53. | :57:55. | |
risk out of Alexandria where the plane took off from before it was | :57:56. | :58:02. | |
divertded to Cyprus. There'll be all sorts of questions about whether | :58:03. | :58:05. | |
security has been increased enough and about whether it's safe to fly | :58:06. | :58:08. | |
from Egypt any more. Thank you very much. We will keep | :58:09. | :58:12. | |
you up-to-date with the latest on the hijacked plane across the day on | :58:13. | :58:17. | |
BBC News. An ongoing situation. Three passengers and four crew | :58:18. | :58:24. | |
members still on board that plane. It's BBC Newsroom live next with | :58:25. | :58:26. | |
Joanna Gosling. ..and that's what | :58:27. | :58:35. | |
she felt with the blues. | :58:36. | :58:38. |