Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 was a scheduled flight serving the route
Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa (; am, አዲስ አበባ, , new flower ; also known as , lit. "natural spring" in Oromo), is the capital and largest city of Ethiopia. It is also served as major administrative center of the Oromia Region. In the 2007 census, t ...
–
Nairobi
Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper ...
–
Brazzaville
Brazzaville (, kg, Kintamo, Nkuna, Kintambo, Ntamo, Mavula, Tandala, Mfwa, Mfua; Teke: ''M'fa'', ''Mfaa'', ''Mfa'', ''Mfoa''Roman Adrian Cybriwsky, ''Capital Cities around the World: An Encyclopedia of Geography, History, and Culture'', ABC-CL ...
–
Lagos
Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national capital of Nigeria until December 1991 fo ...
–
Abidjan
Abidjan ( , ; N’ko: ߊߓߌߖߊ߲߬) is the economic capital of the Ivory Coast. As of the 2021 census, Abidjan's population was 6.3 million, which is 21.5 percent of overall population of the country, making it the sixth most populous city p ...
. On 23 November 1996, the aircraft serving the flight, a
Boeing 767-200ER, was hijacked
en route from
Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa (; am, አዲስ አበባ, , new flower ; also known as , lit. "natural spring" in Oromo), is the capital and largest city of Ethiopia. It is also served as major administrative center of the Oromia Region. In the 2007 census, t ...
to
Nairobi
Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper ...
by three Ethiopians seeking
asylum in Australia
Asylum in Australia has been granted to many refugees since 1945, when half a million Europeans displaced by World War II were given asylum. Since then, there have been periodic waves of asylum seekers from South East Asia and the Middle East ...
.
The plane
crash-landed in the Indian Ocean near
Grande Comore
Grande Comore () is an island in Comoros off the coast of Africa. It is the largest island in the Comoros nation. Most of its population is of the Comorian ethnic group. Its population is about 316,600. The island's capital is Moroni, which is ...
,
Comoros Islands
The Comoro Islands or Comoros (Shikomori ''Komori''; ar, جزر القمر , ''Juzur al-qamar''; french: Les Comores) form an archipelago of volcanic islands situated off the southeastern coast of Africa, to the east of Mozambique and northwe ...
, due to
fuel exhaustion; 125 of the 175 passengers and
crew on board, including the three hijackers, died.
This is the first recorded instance of a partially successful
water landing utilizing a
wide-body aircraft
A wide-body aircraft, also known as a twin-aisle aircraft, is an airliner with a fuselage wide enough to accommodate two passenger aisles with seven or more seats abreast. The typical fuselage diameter is . In the typical wide-body economy c ...
, the first successful landing being
Pan Am Flight 6 in 1956, in which all passengers on board survived; however, the plane used in that incident was a
Boeing 377 Stratocruiser
The Boeing 377 Stratocruiser was a large long-range airliner developed from the C-97 Stratofreighter military transport, itself a derivative of the B-29 Superfortress. The Stratocruiser's first flight was on July 8, 1947. Its design was advance ...
, which is not a wide-body aircraft.
Aircraft and crew
Aircraft
The aircraft involved in the crash was a
Boeing 767-260ER,
registration ET-AIZ,
c/n 23916, that had its maiden flight on 17 September 1987.
Powered by two
Pratt & Whitney JT9D-7R4E engines, it was delivered new to Ethiopian Airlines on 22 October 1987.
Except for a short period between and when it was leased to
Air Tanzania, the airplane spent its life in the Ethiopian Airlines fleet.
It was nine years old at the time the incident took place.
Crew
Captain Leul Abate (42), an experienced pilot with over 11,500 total flight hours (including 4,067 hours in the
Boeing 757
The Boeing 757 is an American narrow-body airliner designed and built by Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
The then-named 7N7, a twinjet successor for the 727 (a trijet), received its first orders in August 1978.
The prototype completed its maid ...
/
767
767 may refer to:
* Boeing 767, a jet airliner
* 767 (number)
* AD 767
Year 767 ( DCCLXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar, the 767th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Do ...
), was the
pilot-in-command
The pilot in command (PIC) of an aircraft is the person aboard the aircraft who is ultimately responsible for its operation and safety during flight. This would be the captain in a typical two- or three- pilot aircrew, or "pilot" if there is onl ...
. The first 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.
Prior to the crash, Leul had experienced two previous hijackings.
Mayday
Mayday is an emergency procedure word used internationally as a distress signal in voice-procedure radio communications.
It is used to signal a life-threatening emergency primarily by aviators and mariners, but in some countries local organiz ...
series, season 3, episode 13: African Hijack (Ocean Landing) The first occurred 12 April 1992 on Flight ETH574, a
Boeing 727-260. Two hijackers with hand
grenade
A grenade is an explosive weapon typically thrown by hand (also called hand grenade), but can also refer to a shell (explosive projectile) shot from the muzzle of a rifle (as a rifle grenade) or a grenade launcher. A modern hand grenade ge ...
s demanded to be taken to Nairobi and onwards to Canada. After a five-hour standoff at
Jomo Kenyatta International Airport the hijackers surrendered. The second occurred on 17 March 1995, flying a
Boeing 737-260. Five hijackers demanded to be taken to Libya, and the airplane was diverted to
El Obeid
El-Obeid ( ar, الأبيض, ''al-ʾAbyaḍ'', lit."the White"), also romanized as Al-Ubayyid, is the capital of the state of North Kurdufan, in Sudan.
History and overview
El-Obeid was founded by the pashas of Ottoman Egypt in 1821. It was ...
, Sudan. There the hijackers changed their mind and wanted to fly to Sweden instead. However, the Sudanese authorities refused to refuel the aircraft, and after several hours of standoff the hijackers surrendered. In both cases, the aircraft were undamaged and nobody was injured or killed.
[
]
Description
Departure
The flight had been delayed in order to wait for a connecting flight. The aircraft took off at 08:09 UTC.
Hijacking
At about 08:29 UTC, when the aircraft, referred to as ''Zulu'' by Ethiopian Airlines' pilots, after the last letter of its registration,["African Hijack"/"Ocean Landing", '']Mayday
Mayday is an emergency procedure word used internationally as a distress signal in voice-procedure radio communications.
It is used to signal a life-threatening emergency primarily by aviators and mariners, but in some countries local organiz ...
'', season 3, episode 13. was 20 minutes into the flight, three Ethiopian men charged the cockpit
A cockpit or flight deck is the area, usually near the front of an aircraft or spacecraft, from which a pilot controls the aircraft.
The cockpit of an aircraft contains flight instruments on an instrument panel, and the controls that e ...
and hijacked the aircraft after taking an axe and a fire extinguisher from the cockpit. 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 who had which description).
The men threatened to blow the plane up in flight if the pilots did not obey their demands. The hijackers said that there were eleven of them when in fact there were only three. After assaulting and forcing first officer Yonas Mekuria into the cabin, they made an announcement. Over the intercom, they declared in Amharic
Amharic ( or ; (Amharic: ), ', ) is an Ethiopian Semitic language, which is a subgrouping within the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages. It is spoken as a first language by the Amharas, and also serves as a lingua franca for all oth ...
, French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
and English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ...
that if anyone tried to interfere, they had a bomb and they would use it to blow up the plane. Authorities later determined that the purported bomb was actually a covered bottle of liquor
Liquor (or a spirit) is an alcoholic drink produced by distillation of grains, fruits, vegetables, or sugar, that have already gone through alcoholic fermentation. Other terms for liquor include: spirit drink, distilled beverage or h ...
.
The hijackers demanded the plane be flown to Australia. 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. One of them pointed out a statement in the airline's in-flight magazine that the maximum flying time of the 767 was 11 hours.
Captain Leul later commented:
Instead of flying 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 the Comoro Islands
The Comoro Islands or Comoros ( Shikomori ''Komori''; ar, جزر القمر , ''Juzur al-qamar''; french: Les Comores) form an archipelago of volcanic islands situated off the southeastern coast of Africa, to the east of Mozambique and nort ...
, which lie midway between Madagascar
Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Afric ...
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.
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, Leul began to circle the area, hoping to land the plane at the Comoros' main airport. This forced Leul to land at more than .
At 11:41 UTC the right engine flamed out. The hijacker briefly exited into 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:
Hearing this, the lead hijacker returned to the cockpit and knocked Leul's microphone out of his hand. Shortly after this, the left engine flamed out, forcing the 767 to glide. The cockpit voice recorder (CVR) then recorded the following (lowercase words were spoken in Amharic while words typed in uppercase were spoken in English):
Leul's sentence was cut off as the CVR and flight data recorder (FDR) both stopped recording at this point due to both engines having flamed out.
Leul tried to make an emergency landing at Prince Said Ibrahim International Airport on Grande Comore
Grande Comore () is an island in Comoros off the coast of Africa. It is the largest island in the Comoros nation. Most of its population is of the Comorian ethnic group. Its population is about 316,600. The island's capital is Moroni, which is ...
, 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 off Le Galawa Beach Hotel, near Mitsamiouli
Mitsamiouli (population 6,100) is a town on the northwest coast of Grande Comore in the Comoros.
History
On 23 November 1996, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 made a crash-landing in the shallow waters offshore from Le Galawa Beach Hotel in Mitsam ...
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; the left engine and wingtip struck the water first. The engine acted as a scoop and struck a coral reef
A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of Colony (biology), colonies of coral polyp (zoology), polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, wh ...
, 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 break apart. Except for the rear part of the airframe, the broken portions of the fuselage sank rapidly. Many passengers died because they prematurely inflated their life jacket
A personal flotation device (PFD; also referred to as a life jacket, life preserver, life belt, Mae West, life vest, life saver, cork jacket, buoyancy aid or flotation suit) is a flotation device in the form of a vest or suite that is worn by a ...
s in the cabin, causing them to be trapped inside by the sinking plane.
Island residents and tourists, including a group of scuba
Scuba may refer to:
* Scuba diving
** Scuba set, the equipment used for scuba (Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus) diving
* Scuba, an in-memory database developed by Facebook
* Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array, either of two in ...
divers and some French and Indian doctors on vacation, came to the aid of crash survivors. 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.
Medical treatment and repatriation of bodies
Survivors were initially taken to Mitsamiouli Hospital. The crash site was less than away from this hospital. The passengers were transferred to El-Maarouf Regional Hospital Centre () in Moroni the same day. The two French people who survived and 19 injured were transported to Réunion. In Réunion, one of the injured died, making the death toll 125. Excluding those transported to Réunion, survivors were transported to Kenya and South Africa.
At the time there was no mortuary in Moroni, so cold rooms were used to store 124 bodies.
Investigation
On 3 December 1996 the '' General Directorate of Civil Aviation of the Comoros'' () agreed to delegate the investigation of ET961 to the Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority
The Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority (ECAA, am, የኢትዮጵያ ሲቪል ኤቪዬሽን ባለሥልጣን) is an agency of the Ministry of Transport and Communications of the Government of Ethiopia. It was established under Proclamation ...
(ECAA). The Air Accidents Investigation Branch
The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) investigates civil aircraft accidents and serious incidents within the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and crown dependencies. It is also the Space Accident Investigation Authority (SAIA ...
(AAIB) analysed the flight recorders.
Fate of the passengers and crew
The final accident report includes a listing of surviving and dead passengers and crew. All 12 crew members were Ethiopians. Six survived, including the pilot and copilot.
The passengers originated from 36 countries.
The passenger manifest (including hijackers but not crew members) follows:
The dead passenger count includes the three hijackers.
Of the passengers, 42 originated in Bombay
Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...
, including:
* 3 Americans
* 9 Nigerians
* 9 Sri Lankans
* 19 Indians
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. One passenger, an Ethiopian, was identified as a child on the manifest; this passenger was among the dead.
Many of the passengers survived the initial crash, but they had disregarded or did not hear Leul's warning not to inflate their life 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.
Leul and Yonas both survived. For his actions, Leul was awarded the Flight Safety Foundation Professionalism in Flight Safety Award.
Notable passengers
Among those killed was Mohamed Amin
Mohamed Amin (29 August 1943 – 23 November 1996) was a Kenyan photojournalist.
Amin's filming of Michael Buerk's report of the 1984 Ethiopian famine brought international attention to the crisis and eventually helped start the charity wave ...
, a wartime photojournalist and publisher of ''Selamta'', Ethiopian Airlines' in-flight magazine.[Episode Seven, '' Mo & Me'']
Part 1
Part 2
/ref> 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.
Franklin Huddle
Franklin Pierce "Frank" Huddle Jr. (born May 9, 1943) is an American diplomat. Huddle has the nickname "Pancho."Block, Zachary.No Resting PlaceArchive. ''Brown University Alumni Magazine''. Accessed January 1, 2010.
Early life and education
A n ...
, the U.S. Consul General of Bombay at the time, and his wife both survived the crash. Huddle said that he chose to fly on Ethiopian Airlines while planning a safari trip to Kenya
)
, national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"()
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Nairobi
, coordinates =
, largest_city = Nairobi
, ...
because of the airline's reputation; it was one of the few airlines in Africa to have Federal Aviation Administration
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic ...
certification. Huddle wanted a flight during the day, reasoning that flying during the day was "safer". He credits his and his wife's survival to a last-minute upgrade to business class.
Maps
Aftermath
A memorial service was held in Galawa on 30 November 1996.
The incident has become a well-known hijacking because of the videotape. This was one of very few large airliner water landings, and was the first hijacked water landing. Both the captain and first officer of the flight received aviation awards, and both continued to fly for Ethiopian Airlines, 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.
In the media
The crash was featured in three episodes of ''Mayday
Mayday is an emergency procedure word used internationally as a distress signal in voice-procedure radio communications.
It is used to signal a life-threatening emergency primarily by aviators and mariners, but in some countries local organiz ...
'' (''Air Emergency'', ''Air Crash Investigation'', ''Air Disasters ( Smithsonian Channel)''). The first appearance was in season 1 to explain what might have happened if Air Transat Flight 236 had ditched instead of landing in a nearby airport. In season 3, an episode ("Ocean Landing") covered the events of Flight 961 in detail. Most recently, it featured in the season 10 episode covering US Airways Flight 1549
US Airways Flight 1549 was a regularly scheduled US Airways flight from New York City (LaGuardia Airport), to Charlotte and Seattle, in the United States. On January 15, 2009, the Airbus A320 serving the flight struck a flock of birds short ...
, to explain the risks of that crew's decision to ditch in the Hudson River. It was also featured in a 2010 episode of the Biography Channel series '' I Survived...'', in which a survivor told his story of what happened on the plane.
See also
* Air Canada Flight 143
* 1990 Guangzhou Baiyun airport collisions
* Tuninter Flight 1153
Tuninter Flight 1153 (UG1153/TUX1153) was a Tuninter Airlines international flight from Bari International Airport in Bari, Italy, to Djerba-Zarzis Airport in Djerba, Tunisia. On 6 August 2005, the Tuninter ATR 72 ditched into the Mediterrane ...
, an ATR 72 ditched into the Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on ...
after a fuel exhaustion
* Ethiopian Airlines accidents and incidents
* List of accidents and incidents involving commercial aircraft
* List of airline flights that required gliding
Notes
References
External links
Final Incident Report
ArchiveAlt archive
- Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority
The Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority (ECAA, am, የኢትዮጵያ ሲቪል ኤቪዬሽን ባለሥልጣን) is an agency of the Ministry of Transport and Communications of the Government of Ethiopia. It was established under Proclamation ...
- Includes list of passengers, surviving and deceased
"Milestones"
''Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...
''. 9 December 1996. – Announcement of deaths of Mohammed Amin and Brian Tetley
"Rescuers continue search for victims of hijacked plane"
''Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. new ...
'' at the ''Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
''Lubbock Avalanche-Journal'' is a newspaper based in Lubbock, Texas, United States. It is owned by Gannett.
History
''The Lubbock Avalanche'' was founded in 1900 by John James Dillard and Thad Tubbs. According to Dillard, the name "Avalanche" ...
''. 1996.
The Hijacking of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 (Criminal Acts Against Civil Aviation – 1996, FAA)
ArchiveAlt archive
*
{{Aviation accidents and incidents in 1996
1996 in the Comoros
1996 in Ethiopia
Accidents and incidents involving the Boeing 767
Airliner accidents and incidents caused by fuel exhaustion
Aircraft hijackings in Africa
Airliner accidents and incidents caused by hijacking
Airliner accidents and incidents involving ditching
Aviation accidents and incidents in 1996
Aviation accidents and incidents in the Comoros
961
Mass murder in 1996
Mass murder in Africa
November 1996 crimes
Terrorist incidents in Africa in 1996
Terrorist incidents in Ethiopia
Terrorist incidents in Ethiopia in the 1990s
Aircraft hijackings