EgyptAir passenger on Oman-Cairo flight assaults crew

Airline employees quickly overpower unarmed man; pilot returns to Muscat after attack; unclear if incident is terrorism-related

By Hamza Hendawi 6 March 2018, 2:27 pm Edit

Illustrative image of an Egyptair A330-343X in 2014. (CC BY-SA Eric Salard, Flickr)

CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian aviation officials say a passenger on an EgyptAir flight from the Gulf state of Oman to Cairo assaulted crew members but was quickly overpowered.

The officials say the Boeing 737-800 with 78 passengers returned to Muscat, Oman’s capital, 30 minutes after it took off from there and the crew handed over the passenger to the police.

The plane later left for Cairo, arriving four hours behind schedule. The officials say the passenger, who is Egyptian, was not armed.

They say Egyptian authorities have questioned the crew and the other passengers about the incident. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether the incident was terrorism-related.

EgyptAir issued a brief statement confirming the incident.