Word: egyptair
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...immediate effect of the storming of EgyptAir Flight 648 by Egyptian commandos in Malta on Nov. 24 was the death of 57 passengers and crewmen, along with two of the plane's hijackers. Among the delayed effects: more confusion and embarrassment for the Egyptian and Maltese governments over exactly what had happened...
...other was an investigation into the standoff between the U.S. and the Italian military at the Sigonella NATO base, where the EgyptAir Boeing first landed. Local police reported that tensions between the two allies turned ugly when the U.S. special Delta Force saw its prey being taken from it. Nevertheless, the clash never went beyond raised voices. Said Craxi Envoy Antonio Badini, who negotiated the surrender of the four terrorists to Italian authorities: "Abbas' role appeared to us of secondary significance." More important, he said, "was our respect for international law, our relations with Egypt...
...Egypt, matters were already at full boil. On the same day that the strange drama with Abbas played out in Rome, Mubarak was pronouncing himself "deeply wounded" by the EgyptAir interception. Said Mubarak at a Cairo press conference: "We had not expected this attack from a friend." Four hours before Mubarak spoke, the first of several anti-U.S. demonstrations broke out at Cairo University. Among the slogans chanted by several hundred outraged students: "The Americans are our enemy!" The next day at a press conference in Khartoum, the capital of neighboring Sudan, Chairman Arafat added his own sneers. Said...
...That prompted President Reagan's "Never" response, raising the public dimension of the crisis another notch. But already U.S. diplomats in Cairo were suspecting that Mubarak's outrage, while honest enough, was also part of a calculated effort to let the volatile Egyptian populace blow off steam over the EgyptAir incident. In the days ahead, Mubarak's tone would slowly moderate; meanwhile he staved off appeals from both left- and right-wing opposition parties calling for specific retaliatory measures against...
When Italian controllers denied permission for the intercepted EgyptAir Boeing 737 to land at the Sigonella air base in Sicily, the American military escorts declared a "fuel emergency" and ordered the 737 down. The pilot aborted his first approach. But he swung around, came in again and soon found himself surrounded by Italian carabinieri and some 50 U.S. Delta Force commandos, who had piled out of U.S. C-141 transport planes that had landed within moments of the EgyptAir craft and were proceeding on orders from the White House to take custody of the terrorists...