Passengers on EgyptAir flight MS181 from Alexandria to Cairo took off into bright skies at 6:30 am, then, rather quickly, noticed the flight veer towards the sea.
There is no body of water between Egypt’s two largest cities which are separated by 179 kilometers of desert.
Thus began a tense episode of time travel back to the 1970s when bell-bottoms, unruly curls, political polemic and dangerous airport standoffs viewed through grainy screens were commonplace.
Initial reports spoke of a man wearing a suicide belt who demanded that the pilots fly to Turkey. After being informed there was insufficient fuel on board, the unlikely hijacker agreed to a diversion to the Mediterranean island of Cyprus.
Witnesses described a jet on a distant runway, Special Forces concealed behind flimsy walls, a jeep driving around, then a slow stream of passengers, initially women and children, descending from the plane. It may well have been 1973.
Terror in the age of the Islamic State is not usually quite so balmy.
Observing the scene, one Greek analyst ventured to report that “it could be a mental disturbance and have nothing to do with terror, maybe a somewhat unstable man…”
Then, Cypriot media began reporting that the man’s motives were, “um, romantic?” He requested that a letter be delivered to his former wife, resident in a nearby Cypriot village.
Aviv Oreg, the former head of the Israeli army’s Global Jihad desk and a former security officer with El Al Airlines, told The Media Line that the events unfolding in Larnaca, Cyprus’ capital, looked like “a personal thing. This happens from time.”
“I’m not shocked,” he said. “Explosives can be things you buy at the supermarket or pharmacy… anyone online can find instructions on how to make a bomb.”
After several misidentifications, including one involving a professor of veterinary medicine at the University of Alexandria, who, alarmed, called the BBC to announce that he was not the hijacker but merely a passenger stuck on the plane, the culprit was identified as Seif Eldin Mustafa, an Egyptian living in Cyprus.
He had told the pilot that he was wearing a suicide belt and threatened to detonate it.
He had given Cypriot authorities a handwritten letter in Arabic demanding the release of political prisoners in Egypt and insisting on a meeting with his former wife.
Mrs. Mustafa was duly transported to Larnaca airport and the Internet into high comedy mode.
Khaled Diab, Egyptian author and blogger, posted a personal message to the man he called the #lovejacker: “Next time, send flowers, you idiot!”
“One man's terrorist is another woman's lover-boy. #EgyptAir” he later added.
A tweeter using the handle @IronyisFunny posted “All moderate ex-husbands must now condemn this #EgyptAir Hijacking!”
Holly Dagres, the Iranian-American commentator, added “After #LoveJacking of #EgyptAir flight, bar is now set extremely high for men to show their love. #Egypt”
An Egyptian travel agency called Lion’s Trips cheerfully proposed passengers book a flight to the Egyptian resort town of “Hurghada with us and… possibly end up in Cyprus, or, who knows. France or Italy. It’s a crapshoot!”
Speaking with The Media Line, Diab, who was doing French homework with his son, said that “most people seem to be taking it with a mix of relief and humor, especially jokes about the bad internet connection and postal service that forced the guy to deliver his letter by hand, or jokes about passengers grateful to be in Cyprus.”
“Who knows,” Diab pondered. “I mean, he could be like a lot of bigger-than-tragic figures in Arabic poetry, just a hopeless romantic or a terrible stalker or a combination of the two.”
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