Egypt’s air marshals foil plane hijack attempt by Sudanese passenger

October 21, 2009 (CAIRO) – Two air marshals overpowered a man armed with a plastic food knife during a flight from Istanbul to Cairo on Wednesday night, the Egyptian media reported.

According to the reports a Sudanese passenger on board the Egypt Air flight pulled out the knife at a female attendant, minutes after takeoff saying he wants the flights diverted to Jerusalem “to liberate it”.

Egyptian security sources said that air marshals “easily” got a grip of the hijacker adding that he later turned out to be intoxicated.

The Sudanese passenger was identified as 28 years old man working a sales representatives named Mohamed Hamad but holding a forged passport under the name Mus’ab Ibrahim Khogali.

Some passengers have said that Hamad was speaking of “Israeli actions in Al-Aqsa Holy mosque”.

The flight continued afterwards and the 87 passengers on board continued to their destination unharmed. The man was immediately taken into custody by Egyptian law enforcement.

The head of security at Egypt Air airlines Esam Gamal Al-Deen said that the air marshals will receive a reward for “their performance on board the plane and controlling the passenger in a matter of one minute and securing the flight and passengers until it safely arrived”.

(ST)