MOSCOW (Sputnik), Svetlana Alexandrova – Earlier in the day, an Egyptian airliner en route from Egypt’s Alexandria to Cairo with 81 people on board was hijacked by a man, allegedly motivated by personal reasons, before landing in Cyprus. Although the hijacker threatened to blow up the plane, police found no explosives after he surrendered and let the passengers and crew members disembark from the aircraft.
"I am glad that this hijacking episode is over safely. It had to be taken seriously and it was. This accident should not have any repercussions for the negotiations on the resumption of flights between Egypt and Russia which had progressed rather positively lately," Mohamed Elbadri said.
Flights between Russia and Egypt were suspended following the crash, on October 31, of an Airbus A321 en route from the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg, believed to have been the result of an explosion. The Daesh jihadist group, which is outlawed in Russia and many other countries, has claimed responsibility for planting and detonating a bomb on board the aircraft.
On Friday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said that Moscow and Cairo had entered the final phase of work to resume airtraffic between the two counties.
