Narrative:Twenty minutes after takeoff, the aircraft was hijacked by two men. One of the men went into the cockpit and showed the pilot what looked like sticks of dynamite strapped to his chest. They demanded to be taken to Cologne, Germany. The hijackers demanded the release of Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca, who at the time was serving a life sentence in Italy after trying to assassinate Pope John Paul II in 1981. However three hours after landing, the men surrendered. German police found no explosives on the aircraft.
Classification:
Hijack
Sources:
» Air Malta flight KM 830. (2006, April 28). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 10:32, June 18, 2006, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Air_Malta_flight_KM_830&oldid=50639892.
Photos
Map
This map shows the airport of departure and the intended destination of the flight. The line between the airports does
not display the exact flight path.
Distance from Malta-Luqa Airport to Istanbul-Atatürk International Airport as the crow flies is 1362 km (851 miles).
This information is not presented as the Flight Safety Foundation or the Aviation Safety Network’s opinion as to the cause of the accident. It is preliminary and is based on the facts as they are known at this time.