Libyans tried to force Egyptian plane to violate air embargo

On Wednesday afternoon at the Tunisian port of Jarba the crisis of the private Egyptian plane which several passengers wanted to violate the air embargo imposed on Libya and land in Tripoli, came to an end.

An official source at Cairo Airport said that the captain of the plane, which was on a flight from Sanaa to Tunisia, asked the Tunisian authorities on the possibility of returning to Egypt following the end of the crisis, noting that several passengers on the plane have been investigated.

The company's owner, Sayed Saber, told the London-Based al-Hayat daily that the plane captain informed him by telephone that several veiled passengers broke into the cockpit. He added that some of those people were carrying knives, but none of them attacked the plane's crew.

He added that the highjackers agreed for the plane to land at Jarba after other passengers were frightened and some of them fainted.

Meanwhile, the Libyan ambassador to Lebanon, Ali Mahmoud Maria, denied news that he had rented the Egyptian plane which landed in Jarba. He said, replying to a question put by journalists, "I have no idea about this matter and I did not rent any plane."

The ambassador's statement was made in reply to news published by the AFP in which the agency quoted the owner of the company as saying that the Libyan ambassador in Beirut rented the plane, which had a flight between Sanaa and Jarba carrying some 151 Libyans and Yemenis.