 ET-AIZ, the aircraft involved in the hijacking, seen in July 1996 | |
| Hijacking | |
|---|---|
| Date | 23 November 1996 (1996-11-23) |
| Summary | Hijacking leading tofuel exhaustion, subsequentditching |
| Site | Grande Comore, Comoros 11°22′22″S43°18′25″E / 11.37278°S 43.30694°E /-11.37278; 43.30694 |
 | |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Boeing 767-260ER |
| Operator | Ethiopian Airlines |
| IATA flight No. | ET961 |
| ICAO flight No. | ETH961 |
| Call sign | ETHIOPIAN 961 |
| Registration | ET-AIZ |
| Flight origin | Bole International Airport Addis Ababa, Ethiopia |
| 1st stopover | Jomo Kenyatta Int'l Airport Nairobi, Kenya |
| 2nd stopover | Maya-Maya Airport Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo |
| Last stopover | Murtala Mohammed Int'l Airport Lagos, Nigeria |
| Destination | Port Bouet Airport Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire |
| Occupants | 175 (including 3 hijackers) |
| Passengers | 163 (including 3 hijackers) |
| Crew | 12 |
| Fatalities | 125 (including 3 hijackers) |
| Injuries | 46 |
| Survivors | 50 |
Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 was a scheduled international flight serving the routeAddis Ababa–Nairobi–Brazzaville–Lagos–Abidjan. On 23 November 1996, the aircraft serving the flight, aBoeing 767-200ER, washijacked[1] en route from Addis Ababa to Nairobi[2] by threeEthiopians seekingasylum in Australia.[3] The planecrash-landed in theIndian Ocean nearGrande Comore,Comoros Islands, due tofuel exhaustion. Of those onboard, 125 of 175 died in theditching (water landing), including all three hijackers and six of the 12 crew.[3] It was the first recorded instance of the ditching of awide-body aircraft.
The aircraft involved was aBoeing 767-260ER,registered ET-AIZ,c/n 23916,[4][2] thatfirst flew on 17 September 1987. Powered by twoPratt & Whitney JT9D-7R4E engines, it was delivered new toEthiopian Airlines on 22 October 1987.[2] Except for a short period between May 1991 (1991-05) and February 1992 (1992-02) when it was leased toAir Tanzania, the airplane spent its life in the Ethiopian Airlines fleet. It was nine years old at the time the hijacking took place.
Captain Leul Abate (42), an experienced pilot with over 11,500 totalflight hours (including 4,067 hours in theBoeing 757/767), was thepilot-in-command. Thefirst officer on the flight was Yonas Mekuria (34). He had flown more than 6,500 hours, 3,042 of them in the Boeing 757/767.[2]
Prior to the crash, Leul[a] had experienced two previous hijackings.[5] The first occurred 12 April 1992 on Flight ETH574, aBoeing 727-260. Two hijackers with handgrenades demanded to be taken toNairobi and onwards toCanada. After a five-hour standoff atJomo Kenyatta International Airport, the hijackers surrendered.[6] The second occurred on 17 March 1995, flying aBoeing 737-260. Five hijackers demanded to be taken toLibya, and the airplane was diverted toEl Obeid,Sudan. There the hijackers changed their mind and wanted to fly toSweden instead. However, the Sudanese authorities refused to refuel the aircraft, and after several hours of standoff the hijackers surrendered.[7] In both cases, the aircraft were undamaged and no one was injured or killed.[5]
The flight had been delayed in order to wait for a connecting flight. The aircraft took off at 08:09UTC fromAddis Ababa.[2]: 3
At about 08:29 UTC,[2]: 3 when the aircraft, referred to asZulu by Ethiopian Airlines' pilots after the last letter of its registration,[5] was 20 minutes into the flight, three Ethiopian men charged thecockpit andhijacked the aircraft after taking anaxe and afire extinguisher from the cockpit.[2]: 1 Ethiopian state-operated radio later identified the hijackers as two unemployed high-school graduates and a nurse; their names were Alemayehu Bekeli Belayneh, Mathias Solomon Belay, and Sultan Ali Hussein; they did not say which of the hijackers was the nurse, which hijacker was which, or what their ages were.[8]
The men threatened to blow up the plane in flight if the pilots did not obey their demands.[2]: 10 The hijackers claimed that there were 11 of them when in fact there were only three.[2]: 4 [5] After assaulting and forcing first officer Yonas Mekuria into thecabin, they made an announcement. Over theintercom, they declared inAmharic,French andEnglish that if anyone tried to interfere, they had a bomb and they would use it to blow up the plane.[2]: 4 [5] Authorities later determined that the purported bomb was actually a covered bottle ofliquor.[9]
The hijackers demanded the plane be flown toAustralia.[3] Leul tried to explain they had only taken on the fuel needed for the Addis Ababa to Nairobi sector and thus could not even make a quarter of the journey to Australia, but the hijackers did not believe him.[5] One of them pointed to a statement in the fleet page of the airline's in-flight magazine that the maximum flying time of the 767 was 11 hours.[2]: 4
Leul later commented:
[The hijackers] knew they wouldn't make it to Australia – they just wanted us to crash. They should be dead. The way they were talking they didn't want to live.[10]
Instead of flying east towards Australia, the captain followed the African coastline southward. The hijackers noticed that land was still visible and forced the pilot to steer east. Leul secretly headed for theComoro Islands, which lie midway betweenMadagascar and the African mainland. During this time, two of the hijackers went into the cabin, with the lead hijacker (as stated in the report) staying in the cockpit.[5]
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, Leul began to circle the area, hoping to land the plane at the Comoros' main airport. This forced Leul to land at more than 175 knots (324 km/h; 201 mph).[5]
At 11:41 UTC, the right engineflamed out. The hijacker briefly exited the cabin to talk with the other hijackers. Leul took this opportunity to make use of the aircraft's public address system and made the following announcement:[2]: 8
Ladies and gentlemen this is your pilot, we have run out of fuel and we are losing one engine [at] this time, and we are expecting [a] crash landing and that is all I have to say. We have lost already one engine, and I ask all passengers to react ... to the hijackers
Hearing this, the lead hijacker returned to the cockpit and knocked Leul's microphone out of his hand.[2]: 8 Shortly after this, the left engine flamed out, forcing the 767 to glide. Thecockpit voice recorder (CVR) then recorded the following (lowercase words were spoken in Amharic while words typed in uppercase were spoken in English):
Leul: "For the sake of my responsibility AT LEAST the passengers must know the condition.
Hijacker: "Descend it increase the speed further."Leul: "It doesn't have any difference. PLEASE. All the same. We are going to die. Why don't you – I thought there is no need to. For the passengers – "
End of recording
Leul's sentence was cut off as the CVR andflight data recorder (FDR) both stopped recording at this point due to both engines having flamed out.[2]: 9
Leul tried to make an emergency landing atPrince Said Ibrahim International Airport onGrande Comore, 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 tried to ditch the aircraft in shallow waters 500 yards (460 m; 1,500 ft) off Le Galawa Beach Hotel, nearMitsamiouli at the northern end of Grande Comore island. Leul attempted to land parallel with the waves instead of against the waves in an effort to smooth the landing. Seconds prior to contacting the water, the aircraft was banked left some ten degrees;[11] the left engine andwingtip struck the water first. The engine acted as a scoop and struck acoral reef, slowing that side of the aircraft quickly and causing the Boeing 767 to suddenly tilt left. The rest of the aircraft then entered the water unevenly, causing it to cartwheel and break apart. Except for the rear part of the airframe, the broken portions of the fuselage sank rapidly.[11] Many passengers died because they prematurely inflated theirlife jackets in the cabin, causing them to be trapped inside by the sinking plane.[citation needed]
Island residents and tourists, including a group ofscuba divers and some French and Indian doctors on vacation, came to the aid of crash survivors.[12][5] A tourist recorded a video of ET-AIZ crashing. She said that she had begun taping because she initially believed that the 767 formed a part of an air show for tourists.[13]
Survivors were initially taken to Mitsamiouli Hospital, less than 2 kilometres (1.2 mi; 1.1 nmi) away from the crash site. The passengers were transferred to El-Maarouf Regional Hospital Centre inMoroni the same day.[2]: 25 The two French people who survived and 19 injured were transported toRéunion.[2] In Réunion, one of the injured died, making the death toll 125.[2] Excluding those transported to Réunion, survivors were transported toKenya andSouth Africa.[2]
At the time, there was nomortuary in Moroni, so cold rooms were used to store 124 bodies.[2]
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On 3 December 1996, theGeneral Directorate of Civil Aviation of the Comoros (French:Direction Générale de l'Aviation Civile des Comores) agreed to delegate the investigation of ET961 to theEthiopian Civil Aviation Authority (ECAA).[2] TheAir Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) analysed theflight recorders.[2]: 17
The final accident report includes a listing of surviving and dead passengers and crew. All 12crew members were Ethiopians. Six survived, including the captain and first officer.[2]: 61
The passengers originated from 36 countries.
Thepassenger manifest (including hijackers but not crew members) follows:
| Nationality | Number on board | Fatalities | Survivors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Austria | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Belgium | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Benin | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| Cameroon | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| Canada | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Chad | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Congo | 5 | 3 | 2 |
| Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire) | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Djibouti | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Egypt | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Ethiopia | 19 | 16 | 3 |
| France | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| Germany | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Hungary | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| India | 20 | 14 | 6 |
| Israel | 8 | 7 | 1 |
| Italy | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| Japan | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Kenya | 14 | 8 | 6 |
| South Korea | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Lesotho | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Liberia | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| Mali | 12 | 9 | 3 |
| Nigeria | 23 | 19 | 4 |
| Pakistan | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Sierra Leone | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Somalia | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Sri Lanka | 9 | 9 | 0 |
| Sweden | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| Switzerland | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Uganda | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Ukraine | 4 | 1 | 3 |
| United Kingdom | 7 | 5 | 2 |
| United States | 5 | 2 | 3 |
| Yemen | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Zaire[b] | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Total | 163 | 119 | 44 |
The dead passenger count includes the three hijackers.[2]: 61 Of the passengers, 42 originated inMumbai, including:[14]
The rest of the passengers originated in Addis Ababa.
Of the 175 passengers and crew members, 125 were killed, including the three hijackers. According to the accident report, all six surviving crew members and 38 passengers received serious injuries, two passengers received minor injuries, and four passengers received no injuries.[2]: 10 One passenger, an Ethiopian, was identified as a child on the manifest; this passenger was among the dead.[2]: 66
Many of the passengers survived the initial crash, but they had disregarded, did not understand, or did not hear Leul's warning not to inflate theirlife jackets inside the aircraft, causing them to be pushed against the ceiling of the fuselage by the inflated life jackets when water flooded in. Unable to escape, they drowned. An estimated 60 to 80 passengers, strapped to their seats, presumably drowned.[15][16]
Leul and Yonas both survived. For his actions, Leul was awarded theFlight Safety Foundation Professionalism in Flight Safety Award.[17]
Among those killed wasMohamed Amin, a wartimephotojournalist and publisher ofSelamta, Ethiopian Airlines' in-flight magazine.[18] He was believed to be standing near the entrance to the cockpit arguing or negotiating with the hijacker presumed to be guarding the cockpit during the final moments of the flight.[5]
Franklin Huddle, theU.S. Consul General of Bombay at the time, and his wife both survived the crash.[19] Huddle said that he chose to fly on Ethiopian Airlines while planning asafari trip to Kenya because of the airline's reputation; it was one of the few airlines in Africa to haveFederal Aviation Administration certification. Huddle wanted a flight during the day, reasoning that flying during the day was "safer".[5] He credits his and his wife's survival to a last-minute upgrade to business class.[20]
CIA operative Leslianne Shedd was killed in the crash. A survivor saw her helping other passengers, including an elderly Ethiopian woman, put on their life vests. She was given a star on theCIA Memorial Wall.[21][22]
A memorial service was held in Galawa on 30 November 1996.[2]
The incident has become a well-known hijacking because of thevideotape.[13] This was one of very few largeairlinerwater landings, and it was the first water landing due to hijacking. Both the captain and first officer of the flight received aviation awards, and both continued to fly for Ethiopian Airlines,[5] although Leul considers Yonas, the first officer, the real hero. Yonas fought the hijackers while he himself was bruised and bleeding, giving time for Leul to land the airplane. "He was a life-saver", Leul said.[10]
In 2005, the crash was featured in an episode of the TV showMayday with the title "Ocean Landing"; the episode is from season 3, episode 12.[23]
In 2009, it was featured in the episode "Death Be Not Stupid" of the TV series1000 Ways to Die; episode 9 from season 1.[24]
It was also featured in a 2010 episode of theBiography Channel seriesI Survived..., in which a survivor told his story of what happened on the plane.[25]
Informational notes
Citations
The 23 November 1996, hijack of an Ethiopian Airlines 767 resulted in the death of 128 people when the pilots were forced to ditch the aircraft near the Comoros Islands.
Two unemployed high school graduates and a nurse were identified Wednesday as the hijackers of a jet that crashed off the Comoros Islands last month ... The Ethiopian men were identified as Alemayehu Bekeli Belayneh, Mathias Solomon Belay and Sultan Ali Hussein. Officials did not say which was the nurse or how old they were.
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