First
the hijacker said the women could leave. All the children, too. Then
the man in the suicide vest agreed that all Egyptians and others from
Muslim backgrounds would be allowed to escape from the plane.
That left five Western men — at least one of whom thought they were about to die.
That left five Western men — at least one of whom thought they were about to die.
"We looked each other in the eyes and we said: Here we are. We're at the end of the line. It's over," recalled the Italian in the group, Andrea Banchetti, the day after an Egyptian man took control of a short EgyptAir flight to Cairo by donning a fake explosives belt and diverting it across the Mediterranean to Cyprus.