As weird as it may sound, Friday’s real hijacking of a Libyan Airbus A320 at Malta airport transpired in the midst of a film being shot based on a hostage situation that occurred 40 years ago here in Uganda.
An official told the BBC that the movie – Entebbe’s shooting was disrupted as the Entebbe film crew had to halt filming on the airport grounds when the Libyan Afriqiyah Airways plane landed at Malta International Airport.
“We’ve had five hijackings landing here and ironically today they were actually filming Entebbe on the airport grounds – and that had to be stopped,” Magda Magri Naudi, the mayor of Lija told BBC World TV.
In 1976, Israeli forces freed 105 hostages in a surprise raid at Entebbe airport, killing about eight hostage-takers and 20 Ugandan troops.
According to internet movie data base, IMDB, Entebbe – which is expected to be released next year – stars Rosamund Pike, Vincent Cassel and Daniel Bruhl.
The Malta Friday hijacking ended peacefully within a few hours after all the hostages were released
But in Uganda in 1976 the hostage situation dragged on for about a week after Palestinian hostage-takers hijacked the flight from Tel Aviv to Paris and diverted it to Entebbe.
The Air France had 250 passengers – with many of whom were Israeli – and 12 crew. The hijackers demanded that release of 54 militants held by Israel and four other countries and a $5m ransom.
Israeli commandos killed all the hostage-takers as well as 20 Ugandan troops before flying the freed passengers and crew back to Israel.