Charter Plane To Evacuate Malaysians In Strife-Torn Libya

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 24 (Bernama) -- The government will charter an aircraft from Europe to evacuate 190 Malaysians who have appealed to leave strife-torn Libya following the Libyan government refusing to allow in military planes.

National Security Council (NSC) secretary Datuk Mohamed Thajudeen Abdul Wahab told Bernama Wednesday night that the Libyan government was opening its air space for 48 hours to allow evacuation of foreign nationals.

"But we can't use the C-130 aircraft of the Royal Malaysian Air Force. We are now looking at the second option, which is to hire a charter plane from a European country that is nearer to Libya," he told Bernama.

Mohamed Thajudeen said once the details were sorted out, the chartered plane would leave for Tripoli to bring out the Malaysians and fly them to Rome.

"We have Malaysia Airlines operating scheduled flights from Rome which can be used to bring them back home. At the same time, the C-130 currently in Slovakia will fly to Rome and stand by as a back-up," he said.

Libya is seeing an uprising by the people against its leader, Muammar Gaddafi.