Athens - Cairo

On November 24, 1985 at 08:20 PM, Athens - Cairo experienced a crash involving Boeing 737-200, operated by Egyptair, with the event recorded near Luqa All Malta.

The flight was categorized as scheduled revenue flight and the reported phase was parking at a airport (less than 10 km from airport) crash site.

98 people were known to be on board, 60 fatalities were recorded, 38 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 61.2%.

Crew on board: 6, crew fatalities: 0, passengers on board: 92, passenger fatalities: 60, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is terrorism act, hijacking, sabotage. On November 23, at 19:35 the EgyptAir Boeing 737 was hijacked by 3 men. The Egyptian security guard who was onboard shot and killed one of the hijackers before being shot and wounded himself, along with two flight attendants. Although the hijackers demanded to be flown to Tunisia or Libya, they agreed to land at Malta for refueling were it landed at 21:15. At Malta, the two wounded cabin crew members were released, along with 11 women. Because Maltese authorities refused to refuel the plane unless all passengers were released, the hijackers threatened to kill a passenger every 10 minutes. A total of 5 additional people were shot and thrown off the aircraft, two of them were killed. After 22 hours of negotiation the plane was stormed by Egyptian forces. In the fight which followed hand grenades were thrown into the passenger cabin, causing a fire.

Aircraft reference details include registration SU-AYH, MSN 21191, year of manufacture 1976.