'Passengers fighting to get out of Libya'
Valletta: Desperate passengers have been fighting among themselves to get on planes out of Libya amid scenes of chaos at Tripoli airport, according to the pilot of one of the evacuation flights.
Philip Apap Bologna, an Air Malta pilot who flew a planeload of passengers back to the tiny Mediterranean island state, said he even had to go into the terminal building to round up passengers.
"Although we had been ordered not to get off the plane, I went into the terminal and outside searching for Maltese passengers," Bologna told the media.
"We went there to get as many Maltese as possible out of Libya and that is what we did."
Bologna said confusion reigned at the terminal because security officers were not allowing people inside if they did not have a flight ticket. He said he saw people fighting to get onto a plane, saying it was testimony of 'their state of despair to get out of Libya'.
Amid the chaos, Bologna said that the departure was delayed for more than four hours. When, eventually, the plane started preparing to takeoff, he was informed that another three passengers had turned up, he decided to return to pick them up, as seats were still available.
"It was the most obvious thing to do," the captain said. When the flight did eventually take off, passengers burst into applause and cheers and then again when the plane landed in Malta.
The island's foreign ministry said there are still around 180 Maltese nationals who want to leave Libya and it was hoping to pick them up later Wednesday after a flight was given clearance by the Libyan authorities.
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