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15 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 8 NOVEMBER 2026 FEATURE defined Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici's premiership Instead, hostages were shot and thrown out from the aircraft. The Americans behind the scenes Mifsud Bonnici's account of American involvement is among the most intriguing parts of the interview. Malta's non-aligned foreign policy cre- ated a political problem. He did not want American military personnel visibly participating in an assault on Arab hijackers. "We did not want that the Arab countries would find out that the Americans were attacking Arab hijackers," he said. Yet, he maintained that sen- ior US officers remained deep- ly involved behind the scenes. "They were in control through their surrogates, the Egyp- tians," he said. He further in- sisted that although the Amer- icans were kept away from the fighting, "they were directing the operation." Mifsud Bonnici also questioned whether the Egyptians could have placed excessive explosives be- neath the aircraft without Amer- ican involvement. "I cannot understand how the Egyptians put the explosives under the car- riage of the aircraft without the knowledge or without the in- structions of the Americans." However, another contempo- rary account sits uneasily with that recollection. Joe Mercieca, then public relations officer at the US Embassy in Malta, had pub- lished a letter stating that senior American officers accompanying the Egyptian commandos were separated from the assault team by the Maltese authorities and prevented from communicating with them. Furthermore, the lead Egyptian commando admitted that the assault would have been successful had the Americans been allowed to assist them. The listening device There was another American offer that never came to frui- tion. The US Embassy offered listening equipment to moni- tor activity inside the aircraft. Mifsud Bonnici said it could not be used because the Egyp- tians attacked ahead of sched- ule while the device was still being brought from Italy. "We were expecting the listening device to arrive in an hour or two," he said. "But the Egyp- tians attacked the plane two hours before the scheduled time." Research into the story of the listening device adds another dimension. Malta had initially declined the American offer and later accepted it on condi- tion that the equipment arrive aboard an Italian rather than an American aircraft, reflect- ing sensitivity over Malta's non-aligned status. The Italian government was willing to help with its trans- port as long as it received the request in writing from the Maltese government. The re- quirement to switch planes delayed its arrival, and that is precisely why the equipment was unavailable when the as- sault began. 'The Egyptians jumped the gun' Mifsud Bonnici said Egypt was chosen to conduct the res- cue because the aircraft was Egyptian and most passengers were Egyptian. "I think the logical step to take is for the Egyptians themselves to deal with the hijack," he said. Other specialist forces, in- cluding the US Delta Force, Israeli units and Britain's SAS, were not selected. But accord- ing to Mifsud Bonnici, the Egyptians did not follow the agreed plan. The assault was supposed to take place later, when food and water were be- ing delivered and the aircraft doors would be open. Instead, they moved earlier without coordinating with the Maltese authorities. "The Egyptians jumped the gun," Mifsud Bon- nici said. Asked whether they had effectively wrong-foot- ed the Maltese government, Mifsud Bonnici was unequiv- ocal: "It's true, it's true, it's true." Why they moved early re- mains unclear. Some of those present in the control tower later suggested a misunder- standing over Maltese and Egyptian time. There were also mysterious unidentified lights observed shortly before the as- sault, prompting speculation that the Egyptians feared an- other force might intervene. "We never found out," Mifsud Bonnici said. "We never found out what actually happened." 'Very, very amateurish' The assault was catastrophic. The Egyptian commandos used explosives beneath the aircraft. Research later indicated that the explosion was intended as a diversion, a recognised assault tactic, but the quanti- ty of explosives and materials within the aircraft contributed to a devastating fire and tox- ic smoke which killed scores of passengers within less than two minutes. Mifsud Bonnici described the operation as "very, very ama- teurish". Asked whether he knew the commandos had fired indis- criminately at everyone who moved, he replied: "It's true. It's true." Were they badly trained? "Yes, definitely," he answered. "Or if they were not badly trained, they acted very, very badly at that time." With hindsight, Mifsud Bon- nici reached an even more striking conclusion—Malta might have been better off conducting the assault itself. "I think we should have done it," he said. "Our own forces… they would have done a better job, definitely." An offer to resign Despite the catastrophic out- come, Mifsud Bonnici said Malta's refusal to yield to the hijackers drew praise abroad. He recalled receiving messag- es from British Prime Minis- ter Margaret Thatcher and US President Ronald Reagan com- mending Malta's stand. But Mifsud Bonnici believed polit- ical responsibility demanded a personal response. He offered his resignation to Cabinet. "I thought that one should accept responsibility for what takes place," he said. "And that it was the right thing to do, to offer to resign." Cabi- net refused it, concluding that responsibility for the failed as- sault rested with the Egyptians. 'I'm extremely sorry' Mifsud Bonnici was asked what he would say if he were sitting before the families of those who died. "I'm extremely sorry," he replied. "We tried to free the hostages. Instead, the people that we asked for help to do such thing did a very bad operation, and the conse- quences were that lives were lost without our intention." Then came his final reflec- tion: "We never meant such a thing to happen. I'm very sorry for all that, but we could not help it." The interview does not settle every controversy surrounding EgyptAir Flight 648. Rather, it captures how the man at the centre of Malta's response re- membered those extraordinary hours more than two decades later, while recordings and subsequent research, in some instances, offer different per- spectives. Mifsud Bonnici emerges as a prime minister confronted with very difficult choices— the kind that would leave an- yone untrained in crisis man- agement, and holding strong views on the country's neutral- ity, rolling the dice on every decision. The decisions were several: Whether to allow the aircraft to land, how far to negotiate over fuel, whom to trust with a rescue operation, and at what point should force replace ne- gotiation. Most decisions Mifsud Bon- nici continued to defend but about the choice of Egyptian commandos, he was openly regretful. What remains is the story of a hijacking that became a massacre, which statistically, is still the world's bloodiest hi- jack rescue in aviation history. Malcolm Scerri Ferrante is the author of Sovereign, a polit- ical thriller based on the 1985 Egyptair hijack. The hijacked Egyptair aircraft was only granted permission to land at Luqa airport after the pilot warned that he would have to ditch the plane in the sea since it was running low on fuel Right: The book Sovereign, authored by Malcolm Scerri Ferrante, is based on the control tower recordings from 1985 and former Prime Minister Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici's involvement in the Egyptair hijack negotiations. Available from leading bookstores and Amazon. More info: www.maltahijackbook. com