Terrorism survivor and motivational speaker Jackie Pflug, from the US, is in Malta and gave a moving talk at Dar it-Tama in Cospicua yesterday, when she met the media at a meeting organised jointly by Mid-Dlam ghad-Dawl and Xarabank.
“We brought Jackie here as part of our efforts to understand the effect of hate crimes and their cause,” said M.D.D.’s director, Fr Mark Montebello. Peppi Azzopardi from Xarabank introduced Ms Pflug.
“It is an honour for me to be here,” said Jackie with tears in her eyes “and I feel grateful to those in Malta who had a part in saving my life.”
Mid-Dlam ghad-Dawl is a charity that works with prisoners and their families and they invited Jackie as part of a project sponsored by AGIS 2007, within the European Commission’s Directorate General for Justice, Freedom and Security. This project is “against hate crimes” in Europe, and focuses on terrorism and violent political hate in particular.
This is Jackie’s second visit to Malta after the hijacking. It took her over 20 years to feel strong enough to return here with the intent of finding those people who helped save her life and thank them, and now she is back again on the hijacking’s 22nd anniversary.
On November 23, 1985 Flight 648 took off at 9pm on its Athens to Cairo route. Ten minutes after take-off, three Palestinian members hijacked the aircraft. The terrorists, calling themselves the Egypt Revolution, were heavily armed with guns and grenades. The terrorist leader proceeded to check all passports. It was at this point that an Egyptian security service agent aboard the plane opened fire, killing a terrorist instantly before he too was fatally shot. However, in the exchange of fire, the plane’s fuselage was punctured, causing a rapid depressurisation. The aircraft was forced to descend to 10,000 feet to allow the crew and passengers to breathe.
The plane did not have enough fuel to reach Libya, so Malta was chosen as a more suitable option. Although it was running dangerously low on fuel, and carrying a number of wounded passengers, the Maltese authorities did not give permission to the aircraft to land. However, the terrorists forced the plane’s pilot to land.
Jackie recalled how “the hijackers released a few passengers upon landing which created a mood of hope among the passengers. However soon after, they began shooting hostages, starting with Tamar Artzi, an Israeli woman, and the passengers’ mood transformed from one of hopefulness to helplessness.”
Omar Mohamed Ali Rezaq, the chief hijacker, threatened to kill a passenger every 15 minutes until his demands were met. “After an excruciating wait, I knew it was my turn, and like four passengers before me, I was shot at point blank range, execution style, thrown from the plane onto the tarmac and left for dead. For five hours, I drifted in and out of consciousness until an airport grounds crew retrieved my body on its way to the morgue. 58 passengers died during the ordeal. I lived.” she said.
“After I went back to the US it was hard enough for me to have been in the hijacked plane, but then the second part of my story was surviving and recovering from brain injury. I lost a lot of my sight and plummeted to a kindergarten reading level. My short term memory was weak and I started having epileptic seizures. I lost my job in Cairo, went through a divorce, and was frightened to leave the house. I started therapy to deal with the crying and depression. It took me 15 years to get back to a 12 year reading level – which I am very proud of, and my memory began to improve slowly. Then at last the laughter started coming back too!” explained Jackie with a heart-warming smile.
Nowadays Jackie says she is very happy with her life, is married and has a wonderful 10-year-old son. “I feel I’ve got to share this great gift with people: That it is possible to smile again after such an experience! Every day we have the possibility to be positive or negative. Choose wisely!” is her advice.
About her participation on Xarabank tonight Jackie said: “I am excited to be taking part and grateful to meet more Maltese people. I feel very at home here.”
Xarabank’s discussion will also be delving into the remaining part of the hijack, which turned into a ‘total massacre’. When the US told the Maltese authorities that Egypt had a special-forces counter-terrorism team trained by the US Delta Force ready to come, they were allowed in. However the Egyptian commandos stormed the aircraft without the authorisation of the Maltese government. 56 out of the remaining 88 passengers were killed, and a total of 58 out of the 90 passengers had died by the time the crisis was over. It was the world’s bloodiest end to a hijack.