Larnaca: An EgyptAir plane was hijacked while flying from Alexandria to the Egyptian capital of Cairo on March 29.
All passengers except the flight crew and four non-Egyptian passengers have been released after negotiations with the kidnappers, the airline said on Twitter.
The jet, an Airbus A320, was forced to land at Larnaca International Airport on Cyprus, an island about 600 km from Cairo. The airline claimed at least 81 people were reportedly on board. Other sources quoting Egyptian and Cypriot officials said 60 people, including seven crew members, were on board.
The hijacker was a man thought to be strapped with explosives, report agencies.
After the plane landed at Larnaca airport, the hijacker released all the people onboard except four foreign passengers and the crew.
Cyprus broadcasting (CYBC) reported that the hijacker may have personal motives. He had an ex-wife in Cyprus, CYBC said.
The EgyptAir flight was kept in isolation at the Larnaca airport.
Egypt’s Civil Aviation Ministry said the plane’s pilot, Omar al-Gammal, had informed authorities that he was threatened by a passenger wearing a suicide explosives belt and forced him to land in Larnaca.
A Cyprus Foreign Ministry official said he could not confirm the man was rigged with explosives. The hijacking occurred in Cyprus’s flight information region.
Witnesses said the hijacker threw a letter on the apron of the airport in Larnaca, written in Arabic, asking that it be delivered to his ex-wife, who is Cypriot.
The hijacker has asked for asylum and a translator, reports said.
Egyptian state media named the hijacker as Ibrahim Samaha, an Egyptian, but gave no other details about him. State media in Cyprus said he had demanded asylum in the country and a translator.
Passengers on the plane included eight Britons and 10 Americans, three security sources at Alexandria airport said.
Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades said: “It looks like at least 49 of the passengers have been freed. That is all I have to say” he told reporters.
Israel scrambled warplanes in its airspace as a precaution in response to the hijacking, according to an Israeli military source.
The hijacked plane was an Airbus 320, Egypt’s aviation ministry said.
Egypt’s tourism industry was already reeling from the crash of a Russian passenger plane in the Sinai in late October.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has said it was brought down by a terrorist attack. Islamic State has said it planted a bomb on board, killing all 224 people on board.
Cyprus has seen little militant activity for decades, despite its proximity to the Middle East.
A botched attempt by Egyptian commandos to storm a hijacked airliner at Larnaca airport led to the disruption of diplomatic relations between Cyprus and Egypt in 1978.
In 1988, a Kuwaiti airliner which had been hijacked from Bangkok to Kuwait in a 16-day siege had a stopover in Larnaca, where two hostages were killed.