Malta

Ministry for Justice and Home Affairs

1675, December to 1676, August - Malta: Epidemic outbreak of the bubonic plague; approximately 11,000 people out of a population of 70,000 died

1813, April to November - Malta: Bubonic plague; nearly 4,500 of the 96,400 residents died

1942, November to 1943 March - Malta: Poliomyelitis outbreak with 483 cases; 397 Maltese children under the age of five with a fatality rate of 3.7%, 57 British service personnel over age 20 with a high morbidity and high mortality rate (19.3%), only 4 Maltese adults and no Maltese soldiers effected; obviously the virus was indigenous to the island since most adults seemed to have immunity.

1973 November 25th - Malta, Luqa Airport: KLM Dutch Royal Airlines Boeing 747-206B with XYZ passengers aboard was hijacked on a flight from Amsterdam to Tokyo by 3 middle-eastern terrorists;

1985 November 24th - Malta, Luqa Airport: Egypt Air Boeing 737 with 98 passengers and crew on board was hijacked en route from Athens, Greece to Cairo, Egypt by 3 terrorists from the Abu Nidal organization. They were armed with guns and handgrenades. After a short shootout with onboard sky marschals, they ordered the plane to land in Malta.

The Maltese authorities refused to grand landing clearance and turned off the runway lights. However, when it became clear that the pilot was going to land anyway, Air Traffic Control switched on the runway lights again when the aircraft was established approximately 5 miles from touch down.

Negotiations with the Maltese Prime Minister followed. Maltese authorities refused to refuel the plane unless all passengers were released. 13 are (11 female passengers and 2 flight attendants), but the aircraft isn't refueled. After 3 refueling calls without any answer, the terrorists threatened to kill one passenger every 15 minutes until the plane is refueled. The Maltese officials refused and the hijackers began executing passengers, starting with two Israeli women. Three hours later, on Sunday, November 24 around 10 am they shot the American Jackie Pflug in the head with 38 caliber bullet from two feet and threw her out of the plane. For five hours she was lieing on the tarmac until a ground crew realized that she was still alive. A total of 5 people were shot and thrown off the aircraft, two of them were killed.

The Egyptiam government had sent their special forces group 777 which stormed the airplane in darkness without the authorisation of the Maltese Government. In the ensuing battle 56 other passengers were killed. Among them were the wife and 18-month old son of Canadian Ed Leonard. Members of the Egyptian forces throw smoke handgrenades into the passenger cabin, causing a fire. According to some passengers the Egyptians were shooting blindlessly, and killed more passengers than terrorists.