"He is not a terrorist, he is an idiot"

On the morning of March 29, the Airbus 320 passenger aircraft Egyptar was captured in the sky over Egypt. The liner made an internal flight from Alexandria to Cairo, there were 81 passengers and seven crew members on board. One of the passengers with an object similar to a suicide bother’s belt penetrated the cockpit of the pilots and announced the capture of the flight. He demanded to change the route and land the plane in Cyprus. After landing at Larnaki airport, almost all passengers and crew members were released, the invader himself surrendered to the police a few hours later. No one was injured. The Egyptian authorities deny the version of the attack, no explosives were found on board. According to preliminary data, the hijacker suffers from a mental illness.

The MS181 flight was captured 30 minutes after the start of the flight. One of the passengers threatened to blow up a suicide bother and demanded to change the route. The pilots headed for Cyprus and landed a plane at Larnaki Airport. Less than an hour later, the hijacker released almost all passengers, leaving five foreigners and the crew aboard. Among those flying this flight were citizens of Egypt, the USA, France, Italy, Greece, Syria, Denmark and Belgium.

Initially, information was received that the aircraft was captured by the professor of University, Alexandria Ibrahim Samahoy for “personal motives”, related to his wife, who lives in Alexandria. President of Cyprus Nikos Anastasiades warned the journalists that there was no Islamist trace of what happened and "all the thing in a woman." Later it turned out that Samah was one of the hostages and was not related to the hijack of the aircraft.

Egyptian safe ad-Din Mustafa. YouTube.com

At about 13:30 Moscow time, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cyprus reported that the hijacor is Egyptian Seiif Eldin Mustafa. Until now, his motives remain foggy. For a long time he did not make any requirements at all, except for police cars to be driven away from the aircraft. It was reported that the hijacker threw a four -page letter in Arabic in the runway addressed to his ex -wife, who lives in Cyprus. The content of the letter is still unknown. It was also reported that Mustafa demanded to release women who were included from the Egyptian prisons, but who specifically did not specify. At this time, one of the hostages ran from the plane through an open window in the cockpit.

According to Cyprus Mail , during the negotiations, the authorities came to the conclusion that the hijacker is a person with an unstable psyche and his actions do not have an extremist orientation. “He is not a terrorist, he is an idiot. The terrorists are crazy, but not stupid. And this guy is stupid, ”said Egypt, an employee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Egypt. Around 14:40 Moscow time, six hours after the capture of the aircraft, Mustafa released the hostages remaining on board, after which he went down the ladder with his hands raised up and surrendered to the police.

Neither on an airplane nor the Egyptian was found explosives. The belt of the suicide bomber , with whom he threatened the crew, turned out to be a dummy made of wires and covers for cell phones. According to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cyprus Ioannis Kasulidis, the hijacker still demanded a meeting with the official representatives of the European Union, as well as a refueling of a tank for a flight to Istanbul. The Cypriot authorities rejected his demand, after which he decided to surrender.

The Egyptian safe of ad-Din Mustaf surrendered to the police. YouTube.com

According to local media, Mustafa has a rich criminal past, he was judged several times. RIA Novosti , citing a high -ranking source, reports that he went through the accused in the fraud case. Egyptian law enforcement agencies summoned the sister of the hijacker for interrogation to try to find out the possible motives that prompted him to this act.

The incident with the capture of the aircraft, apparently, will be the next blow to the Turin industry of Egypt. Five months have passed after the attack on board the Russian Kogalymavia aircraft, which executed a flight from Sharm El Sheikh to St. Petersburg. From that moment, the air service between Russia and Egypt has completely stopped. At the beginning of the year, signals appeared that the carriers would be given a green light in the spring and summer. The source of Kommersant in the tourism industry said that negotiations on this issue were supposed to be held in mid -April at a meeting of a special commission, but now, most likely, the checks of the Egyptian airports will be delayed.

It is still difficult to talk about the degree of guilt of the security service of Alexandria Airport, since no explosives were found on board. Nevertheless, Russian tour operators are sure that you should not count on the restoration of the air offense between Russia and Egypt before the summer season.

The security specialist of the Center for the Study of the Middle East, Rafik Harari at the Atlantic Council of Zach Gold, believes that today's incident demonstrates serious security problems at Egyptian airports. In his opinion, if the Minister of Civil Aviation of Egypt did not exclude the version with an Egyptair aircraft bomb on board, then he de facto admitted that the explosive device was carried out to the territory of Alexandria Airport and through all the inspection points to the plane.

The head of Rosturism Oleg Safronov, commenting on the situation of TASS , also called it “very indicative”. He could not say for sure whether it would affect the resumption of flights, noting that this issue is being worked out by “relevant competent authorities”. The press secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov asked to refrain from premature reasoning on the resumption of flights to Egypt until all circumstances are clarified. The source of RBC in Russian diplomacy emphasizes that working with Egyptian colleagues on air safety issues is carried out in constant mode.