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Egypt: Airline Hijack Personal, Not Terror Related

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JERUSALEM, Israel – The hijacking situation at an airport is over and the suspected hijacker has been arrested, a Cyprus official announced Tuesday.

The president of Cyprus says the incident was not an act of terrorism.

Click play for CBN News Reporter Dale Hurd's updated report.

Shortly after takeoff from Cairo Tuesday morning, a passenger hijacked an Egyptian jetliner en route to Alexandria and demanded to be flown to Turkey.

Reportedly told there wasn't enough fuel to fly to Turkey, the Airbus 320 landed at Larnaca airport in Cyprus, where the hijacker let most most of the 82 passengers on EgyptAir Flight 181 go free.

The hijacker, identified on Egyptian state television as 27-year-old Ibrahim Samaha, kept 11 people on the plane, including crew members and four foreigners.

"He's not a terrorist, he's an idiot," Egypt's Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "Terrorists are crazy but they aren't stupid. This guy is," Egypt Daily News reported.

According to Israel Radio, Samaha, who holds dual U.S.-Egyptian citizenship, is a veterinarian who had lectured at a university in Atlanta, Georgia.

Conflicting media reports suggested he may be wearing an explosives belt he threatened to detonate.

Most reports say he sought to contact his ex-wife, a Cypriot living in Cyprus, and to that end he tossed a letter on the tarmac to deliver to her. She was reportedly on her way to the airport.

Upon landing, he demanded that police cars be kept away from the aircraft.

Meanwhile, Tuesday's hijacking highlights the issue of safety at Egyptian airports once again. Just five months ago, a Russian passenger aircraft crashed after taking off from an Egyptian Red Sea resort. ISIS later claimed responsibility for the bomb that took down that plane.

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