EgyptAir flight 181: A history of hijacks on Egypt’s flag carrier airline

The latest incident will put the country’s aviation security under increased scrutiny not only in the wake of last October’s Metrojet bombing, but because it is the eighth hijack of an EgyptAir plane since the airline was founded

Passengers evacuate a hijacked EgyptAir plane at Larnaca airport on Tuesday (Reuters)

August 1976 A Cairo to Luxor flight was hijacked by three armed gunmen and had to be stormed by commandos.

November 1985 An Athens bound jet was stormed by Egyptian forces at Malta airport after three armed hijackers executed five hostages when local authorities refused to refuel the aircraft.

October 1993 A flight to Yemen was hijacked by an attacker with a large knife. He was arrested on landing.

March 1996 An Egyptian man and his teenage son hijacked a flight from Luxor. They claimed they had explosives and the plane was diverted to Libya, where they claimed they had a message from God for Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

October 1999 After a cockpit door was left open on a flight to Cairo from Turkey, a hijacker took control of the flight wielding a ballpoint pen - crew thought it was a knife - and caused it to be diverted to Germany, where he was arrested.

May 2000 A man brandishing a jar of hair gel claimed he had a bomb and demanded to be taken to Afghanistan. The crew of the Aswan-bound internal flight over-powered the attacker after he attempted to storm the cockpit.

October 2009 A Sudanese man pulled a knife on a female flight attendant and was overpowered by two security officials on a flight from Istanbul to Cairo.