Two who hijacked Sudanese airplane surrender in Libya
TRIPOLI, Libya - Two Sudanese men with handguns who hijacked a plane with 95 passengers and crew to a remote airfield in Libya, demanding to go to France, surrendered yesterday and pleaded for asylum in Libya.
TRIPOLI, Libya - Two Sudanese men with handguns who hijacked a plane with 95 passengers and crew to a remote airfield in Libya, demanding to go to France, surrendered yesterday and pleaded for asylum in Libya.
The gunmen, using the threat of explosives, stormed the cockpit of the Boeing 737 on Tuesday, taking control just minutes into the flight. Passengers said they spent a night in fear, even though the hijackers remained calm.
Once on the ground, the hijackers demanded maps and enough fuel to reach France. But after 22 hours, the standoff ended yesterday.
Passengers and officials at the airport in southeastern Libya said the men identified themselves as members of a Darfur rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Movement, which denied any involvement.
Murtada Hassan, executive director of Sun Air, which owns the jetliner, said their motives were personal and they had no connection with any political or rebel groups. He would not elaborate.
The hijackers, Darfuri men in their 40s, made no political demands. "Their first demand was France. . . . Then they negotiated for Libyan asylum. Then they had no other solution - there was no escape," said Mohammed Al-Balla Othman, Sudan's consul in the desert oasis of Kufra, where the plane landed Tuesday at a World War II-era field.
It was unclear whether asylum would be granted.
The plane was hijacked about 20 minutes into its flight from Nyala, the capital of southern Darfur, to Sudan's capital, Khartoum.
