EgyptAir passenger held after storming cockpit

Unarmed man aboard charter flight from Riyadh to Alexandria detained

By AP 3 September 2016, 3:42 am

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Illustrative. EgyptAir Airbus A320 with the registration SU-GCC taking off from Vienna International Airport, Austria, on August 21, 2015. (AP/Thomas Ranner, File)

EgyptAir says a passenger has been detained after storming the pilot’s cockpit on a flight carrying 150 passengers.

The Friday incident took place aboard charter airline CairoAir 462, which took off from the Saudi capital, Riyadh, to Alexandria’s Borg el-Arab airport, EgyptAir said.

The passenger was not armed.

“The crew checked if the passenger was not carrying whatever can impact the security and the safety of the passengers,” it said.

The pilot notified airport authorities, who declared a state of emergency. The passenger was detained when the plane landed, EgyptAir said.

EgyptAir suffered a tragic loss in May when Flight 804, an Airbus A320 flying from Paris to Cairo, plunged into the Mediterranean Sea, killing all 66 people on board. The cause of the crash remains unknown.