Egypt Air Flight 181 Forced To Land In Cyprus; Taliban Group Attack Christians, Kills Muslims
HALA GORANI, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Hala Gorani. We have live at CNN London. Thanks for being with us this hour. This is THE WORLD RIGHT NOW. Well, it was a routine domestic flight from Alexandria to Cairo, except, it turned into a nightmare when an Egyptian man claiming to be wearing an explosive vests hijacked the plane in midair. Ian Lee reports from Cairo.</s>IAN LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For more than five hours, all eyes were on this plane on the tarmac in Larnaca Airport in Cyprus. EgyptAir Flight MS 181 was forced to land here early Tuesday morning after taking off from Burj El Arab Airport in Alexandria. It had been bound for Cairo until it was hijacked midflight. One passenger recounted the horror on that flight.</s>UNIDENTIFIED CALLER: One of the cabin crew told them that we are hijacked. We are being hijacked. So yes, and that was it. And then there was a lot of panic on the plane and, yes, they didn't tell us anything more. They didn't say what they want or where we were heading, nothing, we were just kidnapped, that's it.</s>LEE: A man now identified as 58-year-old Seif El Din Mustafa, seen here being checked by security at Alexandria later demanding the plane divert to Istanbul.</s>UNIDENTIFIED CALLER: We got a call into our operations room from the captain that he has information about one person who's claiming to have an explosive vest and asked to divert the airplane to Istanbul or anywhere else in Europe. The captain informed him that there is not enough fuel to land in Istanbul so they diverted to Larnaca Airport.</s>LEE: Most of the 69 people on-board were allowed off the plane shortly after it landed in Cyprus, but seven passengers and crew were held hostage for several hours as negotiators worked for a peaceful resolution. They soon established this was not a terror attack. But Seif El Din Mustafa's motives remained unclear. Initial reports indicated he wanted to be reunited with his ex-wife, prompting this response from the Cypriot president.</s>NICOS ANASTASIADES, CYPRIOT PRESIDENT: Always there is a woman.</s>LEE: But the Egyptian prime minister said, he kept changing his demands.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): At some moments, he asked to meet with a representative of the European Union and at other points, he asked to go to another airport, but there was nothing specific.</s>LEE: Then at 2:30 local time, this, more people emerged from the plane. Some run. This man casually walked down the aircraft stairs, even taking time to fumble around with his bag. Then another climbs out of the Egypt air cockpit window to make his escape. They are met by Special Forces and checked for explosives. Finally, the hijacker himself surrenders to police. He's searched on the ground, the bomb that's found is a fake.</s>LEE: Seif El Din Mustafa remains in the custody of Cypriot authorities. His passengers all safely returned to Egypt after what was a terrifying ordeal in a time of heightened alert. Ian Lee, CNN, Cairo.</s>GORANI: Well, CNN aviation correspondent, Richard Quest joins me now from New York with more. Richard, I want to bring up the CCTV footage there from the airport of the suspect being patted down. We clearly see him getting checked in some way. What do you make of that footage and what that tells us about how much he was checked before boarding?</s>RICHARD QUEST, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: It tells me that everything was done absolutely according to plan. There you have him through the magnometer, quick check. The problem, Hala, is that in the heat of the moment when the alarm goes off, that somebody may have a bomb on board or somebody's claiming to have a bomb on board. You haven't got that video ready. You can't be sure that there wasn't a breach of security, and so you have to take it with the utmost gravity and grave situation, and you have to land the plane as if there was a bomb. I'll give you another example, after the Paris attacks, Hala, we went through a series where a number of planes, several Air France aircraft, all being, were the subject of bomb threats. Now these were flights leaving from U.S. airports where the chances of them having a bomb on board were exceptionally low, but even so, in this environment, you have to treat it seriously, land the plane, and follow the protocols.</s>GORANI: But when -- we've all been patted down. I mean, after the Paris attacks, I got one of the most thorough pat downs of my life at the Euro Star terminal. Presumably you go around the waist, I mean, I've take a domestic flight in Egypt. You get a pat down when you're a female, female does it around the waist, the shoulders, everywhere else, if he was indeed wearing even a fake suicide vest, would that not have been caught?</s>QUEST: Not necessarily. I mean, if it was a fake vest. It could have been a photographer's vest. We don't know what he was wearing. We haven't seen the pictures. What is clear though is he didn't have explosives. This, Hala, is not a security breach. This story is not one about how somebody managed to get something on to a plane. It is about frankly how the system worked. Whenever a deranged or mentally unstable person chooses to claim they've got a bomb on board, inevitably, they will take it -- the authorities will land the plane and take it seriously. What stops more of us from doing it, of course, is the consequences. You spend the rest of your life in prison.</s>GORANI: Of course, and you certainly sounded not very stable. Can I just ask you about the crew and the pilot here by all accounts from what I'm hearing, they were exemplary. They kept everyone calm. They diverted the plane, but told -- informed everybody of what was going on on-board. What did you make of how the Egypt Air crew reacted to all of this?</s>QUEST: Absolutely, you've nailed it, exemplary. I'm guessing that was one of the crew coming out of the cockpit window. It's only one of the cockpit. It's one of the flight crew that would know how to operate the cockpit window that does open on a slide and jump out the window. But Hala, this is not a failure at the moment, it's not a failure of security. It's not a failure of Egypt Air. It's not a failure of the crew. It seems in this particular case, everything from the Egyptians to the airlines to the people did everything by the book.</s>GORANI: All right, Richard Quest, we'll see you at the top of the hour on "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS," thanks very much. Even as Pakistan suffers under a series of horrific terror attacks, the bombing of a busy park in Lahore this Easter Sunday was one of shocking carnage.</s>GORANI: One can only imagine the despair there of the victim's families after unimaginable loss. Relatives have begun burying some of the 72 people whose lives were stolen from them. Many very young children. Here's a father's account after the event.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): She was a growing student and this isn't just one family's loss. It's a loss to our people, our entire nation. My son was hurt here. My nephew was also hurt right there. It's just that the bleeding wouldn't stop.</s>GORANI: Hundreds were wounded. A Taliban splinter group claims they were targeting Christians in the attack, but authorities tell CNN, most of the victims were in fact Muslim. CNN's Saima Mohsin has been on the scene and found that many Pakistanis are taking it as an attack on all of them.</s>SAIMA MOHSIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The simple fact is families from all over the city come to this park and that is what people really want to point out that they are targeting Pakistanis and terrorism has no religion.</s>GORANI: Now, over 5,000 suspects rounded up, most were let go, but police are still questioning more than 200 suspects right now in connection with this Easter Sunday attack. Let's speak to Husain Haqqani, a former Pakistani ambassador to the United States. He's live in Washington. Ambassador, thanks for being with us. So first of all, this attack happened in Lahore. This is the hometown of the prime minister. Not in the lawless, tribal regions by the Afghan border, this is really at the heart of the Pakistani government. What do you make of this change of tactic by this splinter group?</s>HUSAIN HAQQANI, FORMER PAKISTANI AMBASSADOR TO THE U.S.: Well, there have been attacks in other Pakistani cities including Karachi and Lahore in the past. Terrorists are sending a message. They are saying you haven't really tackled us right and we can actually bring the war to the heart of your country. Remember, 72 percent of Pakistan's military comes from the province of Lahore's capital, the prime minister, the speaker of parliament, almost all important personalities in Pakistan right now come from the area. So in a way, the terrorists are throwing down the gauntlet and saying you haven't really tackled us and we will continue to attack you. We are not going anywhere.</s>GORANI: Ambassador, just to remind our viewers, we're talking about the Pakistani Taliban, this is an offshoot of the Pakistani Taliban called (inaudible), they are claiming responsibility. The TTP to remind our viewers, the TTP is the group that claimed responsibility for trying to kill Malala Yousefzai, also responsible for that absolutely horrific school massacre in 2014. One of the things you say, Ambassador, is Pakistan has to start getting serious now and targeting all of these groups equally. What do you mean by that?</s>HAQQANI: Hala, we've been there before. We've seen such incidents every time there's an incident, Pakistani Israeli, we see images of people saying on television, oh, this is an attack on all Pakistanis. But let us be real, the Pakistani state has said that many, many times, the general said after 9/11 he's got no sympathy for any terrorist group. It's been 16 years. Pakistan created many terrorist groups primarily for its strategic purposes in Afghanistan and India. That has backfired and it is time for Pakistan to recognize that --</s>GORANI: Will it seriously -- will it seriously go after the Pakistani Taliban this time around?</s>HAQQANI: Unfortunately, I think that the mistake comes from going after only the Pakistani Taliban and what happens is that one jihadi group protects another. So they will continue to be splinter groups that we will see and listen until all extremist jihadi groups are considered the enemy. And Pakistan makes the decision that we are going after all of them and we will pay the price initially, but eventually our country will be a better country, moreover, Pakistan needs to change its national discourse from making religion the center piece of all its politics. That is not going to help with the recruitment of these terrorists who continue to be raised from areas in which religion is the same as politics.</s>GORANI: All right, Husain Haqqani, a former Pakistani ambassador to the United States, we really appreciate your time with us this evening. Thanks very much.</s>HAQQANI: Pleasure.</s>GORANI: Well, turning now to the race for the White House. It is not the headline that Donald Trump wants just hours before tonight's Republican town hall right here on CNN. His campaign manager is arrested, facing criminal charges in Florida. Corey Lewandowski turned himself in today charged with misdemeanor battery. He is accused of grabbing and bruising the arm of a reporter at a Trump event earlier this month. The Trump campaign says Lewandowski is, quote, "absolutely innocent." Let's go now live to Janesville, Wisconsin, where Trump will attend a campaign rally in a couple of hours. Senior White House correspondent, Jim Acosta is there. Tell us more about the Trump camp's reaction to this arrest, Jim.</s>JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hala, at this point, the Trump campaign is standing by its embattled campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, from Donald Trump on down. Donald Trump even put out a series of tweets, starting with this one earlier this afternoon and we'll put this one up on screen. "While Corey Lewandowski, my campaign manager and a very decent man was just charged with assaulting a reporter. Look at tapes, nothing there." Now, even though Donald Trump says look at the tapes, there's nothing there, if you look at this new surveillance footage that was issued by the Jupiter Police Department in Florida, which, by the way, comes from security cameras inside a Trump's golf resort where this incident allegedly took place. You clearly see Corey Lewandowski, the campaign manager for Donald Trump, grabbing Michelle Fields, who is a reporter for the conservative news outlet, "Breitbart," initially Michelle Fields was not pressing charges. And then this got into the media, there were accusations flying back and forth. At one point, Corey Lewandowski tweeted that Michelle Fields was being delusional that he never touched her. Now the Trump campaign and Lewandowski's attorney are both issuing identical statements saying that he's innocent of these charges. He's looking forward to his day in court. And also emphasizing that he was not arrested. Although if you talk about the Jupiter Police Department, they will say, well, because he came in and submitted himself to the charges and picked up this notice to appear in court that he was essentially arrested. Now Hala, this goes into the file of things you would never think would happen during the course of an American political campaign, but this has been a very unusual year. And we could tell you, at this point, Donald Trump is planning on appearing at this rally later on this afternoon. This is happening in the district of House Speaker Paul Ryan so there is a lot of, you know, really a lot of coverage surrounding this rally that's supposed to take place later today. And then later on tonight, CNN is hosting a town hall featuring Donald Trump. He's going to have multiple opportunities throughout the course of the day to talk about all of this, but every indication so far, he is standing by his campaign manager. There is no indication whatsoever that Corey Lewandowski is going anywhere, despite what you're hearing from Ted Cruz, John Kasich, the other non-Trump campaign rivals in this race who are saying that this is indicative of Donald Trump's campaign. And that Corey Lewandowski essentially should be fired -- Hala.</s>GORANI: All right, well, he's not getting fired, and we'll see tonight how Donald Trump responds to all of this in our town hall. Jim Acosta, thanks very much for joining us from Wisconsin. In a few hours, you can hear the Republican candidates answer questions directly from voters as we've been mentioning, CNN is hosting a town hall in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, watch it here live at 1:00 in the morning, London Time. Still to come this evening, evacuations are announced at an American base in Southern Turkey. One that is central to the fight against ISIS and the aerial campaign over Syria and Iraq. Details are up next. Stay with us.