The broken wing of Ethiopian
Airlines Boeing 767 ET-AIZ
rests in the shallow water off
Moroni, Comoros Islands in
this 1996 file photo. (File
Photo/AP)
On November 23, 1996, an
Ethiopian Airlines B-767
aircraft Flight 961 en route
from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to
Nairobi, Kenya, was hijacked
by three Ethiopian males.

Wh
more

The broken wing of Ethiopian
Airlines Boeing 767 ET-AIZ
rests in the shallow water off
Moroni, Comoros Islands in
this 1996 file photo. (File
Photo/AP)
On November 23, 1996, an
Ethiopian Airlines B-767
aircraft Flight 961 en route
from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to
Nairobi, Kenya, was hijacked
by three Ethiopian males.

When the Boeing 767-260ER
entered Kenyan airspace that
day, three Ethiopian men
charged the cockpit and
hijacked the airplane.
According to a special report
by AirDisaster.com, 'One of
the men ran down the aisle
toward the cockpit shouting
statements that could not be
understood, and his two
accomplices followed soon
after.' The report described
the men as 'young
(mid-twenties), inexperienced,
psychologically fragile, and
intoxicated.'[1]

The men threatened to blow up
the plane with a bomb,
announcing over the intercom
that they were opponents of
the Ethiopian government
seeking political asylum,
having recently been released
from prison. Authorities later
determined that the 'bomb' was
a covered bottle of liquor.

The hijackers demanded that
the plane be flown to
Australia. The pilot tried to
explain to the hijackers that
the plane did not have enough
fuel to make it even a quarter
of the way there, but they did
not believe him. Instead of
flying towards Australia, the
captain followed the African
coastline. The hijackers,
however, noticed that land was
still visible and forced the
pilot to steer east. The pilot
secretly headed for the Comoro
Islands, which lie midway
between Madagascar and the
African mainland.

The plane was nearly out of
fuel as it approached the
island group, but the
hijackers continued to ignore
the captain's warnings. Out of
options, the captain began to
circle the area, hoping to
land the plane on the island
group's main airport. When the
plane ran out of fuel, both
engines failed. The crew used
a ram air turbine to preserve
the aircraft's most essential
functions, but in this mode
some hydraulic systemsâ??such
as the flapsâ??were
inoperative. This forced the
pilot to land at more than 175
knots (about 200 miles per
hour or 320 kilometers per
hour).

The pilot tried to make an
emergency landing on the
airport at Prince Said Ibrahim
International Airport, Grand
Comoro, but a fight with the
hijackers at the last minute
caused him to lose his visual
point of reference, leaving
him unable to locate the
airport. While still fighting
with the hijackers, he then
tried to ditch the aircraft in
shallow waters 500 metres off
Le Galawa Beach Hotel near
Mitsamiouli at the northern
end of Grand Comoro island.
The left engine and wingtip
struck the water first,
causing the aircraft to break
up. Island residents and
tourists, including a group of
scuba divers and some French
doctors on vacation, came to
the aid of crash survivors.

123 of the 175 passengers and
crew members were killed, as
well as all three hijackers.
The captain of the flight,
Leul Abate, and the co-pilot,
Yonas Mekuria, were among the
survivors. Mohamed Amin, a
famous photojournalist, was
among the casualties.

This is perhaps one of the
best-known hijackings because
a vacationing couple recorded
the crash on videotape [2].
The video would later serve as
an important tool in studies
of aviation crashes and
procedures.

This was one of very few large
airliner water landings. Both
the captain and co-pilot of
the flight received aviation
awards, and both continued to
fly for Ethiopian Airlines.

The crash was featured in an
episode of Mayday (or Air
Emergency/Air Crash
Investigation).

Category Autos & Vehicles

Tags Boeing, 767, Flight, 961, Hijacked, Aircraft, Airplane, Crashes, Water, Ocean, Terrorists, Ethiopian