ANTHONY COLLINS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They attacked under cover of darkness. Egyptian commandos tried to storm the plane and free the hostages. Maltese officials helped by closing the airport. They surrounded the EgyptAir Boeing jet with emergency vehicles, while Egyptian troops blew out a door of the plane. Shouts and screams could be heard. Ambulances brought injured passengers to the only hospital in town. All off-duty doctors and nurses were ordered back on duty. Relatively few ambulances entered the hospital compared to the number of passengers known to have been onboard. At first this was thought to be a good sign. Then a government spokesman revealed that the rescue attempt was a disaster.</s>PAUL MIFSUD, MALTA GOVT. SPOKESMAN: The situation is at the moment that we think that there are about 50 people inside the aircraft, either killed by the bullets during the shoot-out, or as a result of the fire because it was engulfed in smoke inside.</s>COLLINS: He revealed that the hijackers hurled grenades at passengers as soon as they realized that Egyptian troops were attacking. Before the Egyptian raid resulted in the fire aboard the plane, Malta had refused the hijackers' demands to refuel. Day-long negotiations freed 16 passengers, but failed to end the release of all the others. Malta agreed to let an Egyptian commando team try to storm the plane and overpower the hijackers.
CNN 20: EgyptAir Hijacking, November 24, 1985