Horror on Malta

The effort by Egyptian commandos to end the hijacking of an Egyptair jetliner at Valletta, Malta, and rescue its surviving passengers and crew members achieved its first purpose only at the cost of failing tragically in its second. When the gunfire ended and the smoke cleared, 60 persons lay dead, either from bullet wounds or from asphyxiation caused by fires started when the terrorists set off grenades in the passenger cabin. No terrorist episode in recent history has ended more horribly.

Given these appalling results, was it a mistake to use force to end the hijacking? In the light of what was happening aboard the airliner, with passengers being coldbloodedly shot by their captors with brutal regularity, there was in fact no alternative to militant action. The circumstances surrounding the rescue effort remain murky, with the Egyptian government being notably slow to release a clear and credible account of what took place. A preliminary conclusion would have to be that the trouble lay not in the intent of the rescue effort but in its execution. The crucial elements of surprise and extremely rapid action by the rescue team clearly were not achieved. The terrorists, instead of being subdued in the first few seconds after the plane was stormed, had time to explode their grenades and engage in a shoot-out. The result was carnage.

Exactly who the terrorists were, what they wanted and whom they were sponsored by also remains unclear. Egypt, while hinting that Libya was behind the hijacking, has stopped short of a public accusation. Most pressing of all is the question of how the terrorists obtained their weapons. Was it once again a failure of security at Athens airport that allowed this incident to take place, or were the weapons hidden aboard the plane before it ever left Cairo? This for now is the essential issue, because so long as there are flaws in airport security hijackings will continue, and innocent passengers will be compelled to pay a terrible price for the laxity of others.