Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961
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| Summary | |
|---|---|
| Date | November 23, 1996 |
| Type | Fuel exhaustion in flight, Hijacking |
| Site | Le Galawa Beach, near Moroni, Comoros |
| Fatalities | 123 |
| Injuries | 52 |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Boeing B767-260ER |
| Operator | Ethiopian Airlines |
| Tail number | ET-AIZ |
| Passengers | 163 |
| Crew | 12 |
| Survivors | 52 |
Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 was hijacked on November 23, 1996 en route from Addis Ababa to Nairobi, by three Ethiopians seeking political asylum. The plane crashed in the Indian Ocean near Comoros after running out of fuel, killing 123 of the 175 passengers and crew on board.
Contents |
[edit] The hijack
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.
[edit] Crash landing
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 systems—such as the flaps—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 Merkuria, were among the survivors. Mohamed Amin, a famous photojournalist, was among the casualties.
[edit] Aftermath
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).
