Hijack Survivors Describe Terror on Plane; 60 Killed : Egyptians Blast Way Aboard Jet

VALLETTA, Malta —  Sixty people, including an American woman, died in the bloodiest hijacking and rescue in history but one air pirate survived and is under armed guard, the government said today.

Greece and Egypt sent military planes to Malta to pick up the survivors and the bodies of those killed in the hijack drama that ended Sunday night when 25 Egyptian commandos blasted their way onto the plane, triggering a grenade and gun battle that set the aircraft on fire.

Survivors today told of their 30 hours of terror, with one saying the Egyptian commandos were “firing indiscriminately” when they stormed the plane because they could not immediately identify the terrorists from the other passengers.

Fifty-eight bodies were found on board the charred EgyptAir Boeing 737, which was seized Saturday night en route to Cairo from Athens with 97 people on board. Twelve people were released by the kidnapers before the raid.

One passenger died on the way to a hospital, and Scarlett Rogenkamp, 38, a civilian employee of the U.S. Air Force from Oceanside, Calif., was shot in the head by hijackers before the raid to press their demand for fuel. Two other Americans were injured before the commando assault.

Baby’s Body Found

The body of a Canadian infant too young to be included on the passenger list was found today, the 60th and final victim found.

The Maltese government initially said all the hijackers were killed. But spokesman Paul Mifsud said later that among the 30 people injured in the hijacking and rescue was an Arab identified by the pilot as one of the five air pirates.

Mifsud said the unconscious Arab is being held under armed guard at a hospital. He declined to say what action Malta will take against him.

An Australian who sat next to one of the hijackers said the commandos fired indiscriminately and hit several fleeing passengers.

“Anyone coming out of the airplane was lucky not to be shot,” said passenger Anthony Lyons, an electronics marketer. “They (the commandos) were firing pretty indiscriminately. They didn’t know if we were terrorists.”

After the hijackers forced the plane to land in Malta, they shot two Israeli and three American passengers, according to a Frenchman who survived the commando assault.

One ‘Played Dead’

One American who was bound, forced to kneel, then shot in the head by the hijackers survived because she was off the plane by the time commandos rushed it, and another took a bullet and “played dead,” rolling to the ground, where he lay in a pool of blood.

Jackie Nink Pflug, 30, of Pasadena, Tex., a special education teacher in Cairo, was shot in the back of the head and flung from the plane because the hijackers apparently thought she was dead, her family said.

“They shot her in a kneeling position and threw her out of the airplane. She landed on her face, broke her nose,” Pflug’s father, Eugene Nink, said.

A family friend, Eric Beaver, said, “Getting off the plane early is what saved her--before the commandos rushed the plane.”

Patrick Baker, 28, of White Salmon, Wash., said today from his hospital bed that after he was shot, “I was confused for a second. I fell down the stairs headfirst. I was picked up by two airline people and I was dumped off the platform. . . . After about two minutes, I got up and ran away.” He told relatives he survived by “playing dead.”

The pilot, Capt. Hani Galal, described the hijackers as “first-class killers” and said the ringleader singled out Americans and Israelis “for execution.” Galal said the hijack leader was “a madman” who sang and danced each time he shot a hostage.