Passenger on EgyptAir flight attacks crew and tries to storm cabin
The lone Egyptian attacker was overpowered and the plane quickly returned to Muscat, Oman.
Panic spread through an EgyptAir flight after an "agitated" passenger assaulted crew members and tried to storm the pilot's cabin.
The plane was carrying 78 passengers from Oman's capital Muscat to Cairo, Egypt, this morning (6 March), when the incident took place around 25 minutes into the four-hour flight.
However, the lone Egyptian attacker, who was not armed, was quickly overpowered and subdued.
The pilot of the Boeing 737-800 decided to turn the plane around and head back for Muscat to hand over the passenger to the authorities.
Egyptian security questioned the crew and the other passengers about the incident. However, it is unclear whether the incident was terrorism-related. EgyptAir issued a brief statement confirming the incident.
The flight later left for Cairo, arriving four hours behind schedule.
In May 2016, 66 passengers were killed when EgyptAir flight MS804 from Paris to Cairo crashed into the Mediterranean.
French authorities last year ordered an investigation into whether the flight was brought down by a fire caused by overheating mobile devices after terrorism had been ruled out as the cause of the crash.
CCTV recovered from the crash is said to show a tablet and a bottle of perfume were placed on the instrument panel of EgyptAir flight MS804.
The probe will focus on whether an iPad Mini 4 or an iPhone 6S belonging to the first officer caught fire after being plugged into the wrong socket.
The crashed killed 40 Egyptians, 15 French citizens and one Briton.
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