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VALLETTA — Two fighter jets that defected to Malta at the start of the Libyan uprising last year returned to their home country on Feb. 22 with the colors of the new regime freshly painted on their sides.
The Mirage jets were flown back to Libya by the same pilots — Col. Alial-Rabti and Col. Abdullah al-Salheen — who landed them in Malta in February 2011 when they disobeyed the Gadhafi regime’s orders to bomb civilians in Benghazi. The two pilots were given protection in Malta during the Libyan uprising.
The jets were decommissioned and kept in Malta despite calls by Tripoli on the Maltese government to return them.
The green roundels on the two jets have been replaced with the new Libyan independence flag.
The fighter jets were official handed over to the two pilots by Maltese Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi at a ceremony on the airfield on Feb. 21.
The jets were unable to leave Malta due to bad weather and spent an extra day on the tiny island, which played a key humanitarian role in the conflict.
The pilots performed a low fly-past over the island before roaring off.
