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Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961

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Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961
An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 767-200ER, similar to the one involved in the crash of Flight 961 in November 1996 (1996-11).
Hijacking
DateNovember 23, 1996 (1996-11-23)
SummaryFuel starvation due to hijacking, water landing
SiteGrande Comore, Comoros
Aircraft typeBoeing 767-200ER
OperatorEthiopian Airlines
RegistrationET-AIZ
Flight originSahar International Airport, Mumbai, India
1st stopoverBole International Airport, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
2nd stopoverJomo Kenyatta International Airport, Nairobi, Kenya
3rd stopoverMaya-Maya Airport, Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo
Last stopoverMurtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos, Nigeria
DestinationPort Bouet Airport, Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire
Passengers163 (including 3 hijackers)
Crew12
Fatalities125 (including 3 hijackers)
Injuries50
Survivors50

Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961, a Boeing 767-200ER, was hijacked on 23 November 1996,[1] en route from Addis Ababa to Nairobi on a Bombay–Addis Ababa–Nairobi–Brazzaville–Lagos–Abidjan service,[2][3] by three Ethiopians seeking political asylum in Australia.[4] The plane crash-landed in the Indian Ocean near Grande Comore, Comoros Islands, due to fuel starvation, killing 125 of the 175 passengers and crew on board, along with the hijackers; the rest of the people on board survived with injuries.[4]

At the time this incident took place, it was the second deadliest hijacking involving a single aircraft.[5] However, it fell to third place with the September 11, 2001 attacks. The incident is the only true water landing of a widebody airliner with survivors.[6]

Aircraft

The aircraft involved in the accident is seen here at London Gatwick Airport in 1991, wearing the Air Tanzania livery while on lease from Ethiopian Airlines.

The aircraft involved in the accident was a Boeing 767-260ER, registration ET-AIZ, c/n 23916, that had its maiden flight on 17 September 1987.[7] Powered by two Pratt & Whitney JT9D-7R4E engines, it was delivered new to Ethiopian Airlines on 22 October 1987.[7][8] Except for a short period between May 1991 (1991-05) and February 1992 (1992-02) when it was leased to Air Tanzania, the airplane spent its life in the Ethiopian Airlines fleet.[7] It was Template:Age in years and days textual version old at the time the incident took place.

Hijack

When the aircraft, nicknamed Zulu by Ethiopian Airlines' pilots,[9] was still flying over Ethiopian airspace,[10] three Ethiopian men charged the cockpit and hijacked the aircraft after taking an axe and a fire extinguisher from the cockpit. According to a special Airdisaster.com report, "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."[10] 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).[11]

The men threatened to blow the plane up in flight if the pilot and co-pilot—Leul Abate and Yonas Mekuria—did not obey their demands. They announced over the intercom that they were opponents of the Ethiopian government seeking political asylum, having recently been released from prison. The hijackers said that there were eleven of them when in fact there were only three. Authorities later determined that the bomb was actually a covered bottle of liquor.[10][12][13]

The hijackers demanded the plane to be flown to Australia;[4][10] the in-flight magazine stated the 767 could make the trip on a full tank and the plane had been refueled at its last stopover. Leul tried to explain they had only taken on the fuel needed for the scheduled flight and thus could not even make a quarter of the journey, but the hijackers did not believe him.[13]

Instead of flying towards Australia, the captain followed the African coastline. The hijackers noticed that land was still visible and forced the pilot to steer east. Leul secretly headed for the Comoro Islands, which lie midway between Madagascar and the African mainland.[13]

Crash landing

Sequence showing the ditching of the aircraft.

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. 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 Leul to land at more than 175 knots (324 km/h; 201 mph).[13]

Leul tried to make an emergency landing at Prince Said Ibrahim International Airport on Grande 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 (457 m) off Le Galawa Beach Hotel, near Mitsamiouli 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. ET-AIZ's left engine and wingtip struck the water first. The engine acted as a scoop and struck a coral reef, slowing that side of the aircraft quickly, causing the Boeing 767 to violently spin left and break apart. Island residents and tourists, including a group of scuba divers and some French doctors on vacation, came to the aid of crash survivors.[13][6] Many passengers died because they inflated their life jackets in the cabin,[10][12] causing them to be trapped inside by the rising water. This led to further notices about not inflating the vests before exiting the plane.[citation needed]

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.[14]

Fate of the passengers and crew

The passengers originated from the following countries:[15]

Of the passengers, 42 boarded in Bombay, including:[16]

The rest of the passengers boarded in Addis Ababa.

One hundred twenty-five of the 175 passengers and crew members were killed, as well as all three hijackers. Many of the passengers who died 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.[22]

Leul and Yonas both survived. For his actions, Leul was awarded the Flight Safety Foundation Professionalism in Flight Safety Award.[23]

Notable passengers

Among those killed was Mohamed Amin, a famous wartime photojournalist and publisher of Selamta, Ethiopian Airlines' in-flight magazine.[24] He was believed to be standing near the entrance to the cockpit arguing and negotiating with the hijacker presumed to be guarding the cockpit during the final moments of the flight. Brian Tetley, Amin's colleague, also died.[25]

CIA officer Leslianne Shedd died while serving a highly successful tour in Ethiopia at the time of the hijacking and crash. At the CIA's 2012 Annual Memorial Ceremony to Honor Fallen Colleagues, the Agency recalled survivors of the crash telling the CIA that "Leslianne—an outstanding young woman—spent her final moments comforting those around her." [26]

Franklin Huddle, the U.S. Consul General of Bombay at the time, and his wife Chanya "Pom" Huddle both survived the crash.[20] Huddle said that he chose to fly on Ethiopian Airlines while planning a safari trip to Kenya because of the airline's reputation. Huddle said in an interview that Ethiopian Airlines was one of two in Africa to have Federal Aviation Administration certification. Huddle wanted a flight during the day, reasoning that flying during the day was "safer."[13] Huddle credited his and his wife's survival to a last-minute upgrade to business class.[27]

Other passengers on the aircraft included Lt.Gen.(Ret.) Antal Annus, the Hungarian ambassador to Kenya,[15] who died, and a French foreign ministry official.[28]

Aftermath

The incident has become a well-known hijacking because of the videotape.[14] The video later served as an important tool in studies of aviation crashes and procedures.[citation needed]

This was one of very few large airliner water landings, the first hijacked water landing. Both the captain and co-pilot of the flight received aviation awards, and both continued to fly for Ethiopian Airlines.[13]

In the media

The crash was featured in three episodes of Mayday (Air Emergency, Air Crash Investigation). One appeared in season 1 to explain what might have happened if Air Transat Flight 236 had ditched instead of landing in a nearby airport. It appeared again in season 3, this time directly explaining the events of Flight 961. Most recently it featured in the season 10 episode covering US Airways Flight 1549, to explain the dangers of Captain Sullenberger's attempt to land on 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,[29] and also appeared in the documentary Out of the Wreckage - Plane Crash Survivors, which features crashes that were caught on camera and with survivors.[citation needed]

See also

References

  1. ^ "1996 spawns worst-ever accident totals". Flightglobal.com. Flight International. 15 January 1997. Retrieved 5 June 2011. 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.
  2. ^ "PLANE IS HIJACKED; CRASHES IN OCEAN OFF EAST AFRICA". The New York Times. 24 November 1996. Retrieved 20 February 2011.
  3. ^ "Terror Aloft, Death at Sea". The New York Times. 1 December 1996. Retrieved 20 February 2011.
  4. ^ a b c Hijacking description at the Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved on 24 May 2011.
  5. ^ "Corrections". The New York Times. 27 November 1996. Retrieved 19 February 2011.
  6. ^ a b Lendon, Brad. "Previous jet ditchings yielded survival lessons." CNN. Retrieved on 16 January 2009.
  7. ^ a b c "Boeing 767 - MSN 23916". Airfleets.net. Retrieved 3 January 2012.
  8. ^ "Accident information : Boeing 767 Ethiopian Airlines ET-AIZ". Airfleets.net. Retrieved 3 January 2012.
  9. ^ Mayday series, season 3, episode 13, interview with pilot Leul Abate
  10. ^ a b c d e "Air Disaster.Com: Special Report: Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961". AirDisaster.com. Retrieved 20 February 2011.
  11. ^ "Government Names Ethiopian Airlines Hijackers". Minnesota Daily (World & Nation digest). 1996-12-05. Retrieved 2012-05-09.
  12. ^ a b Adrian Blomfield (25 January 2010). "Beirut: 90 feared dead as Ethiopian Airlines plane crashes into Mediterranean". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 18 February 2011.
  13. ^ a b c d e f g "African Hijack"/"Ocean Landing," Mayday
  14. ^ a b "Honeymooners capture dramatic images of Ethiopian jet crash," CNN (via Archive.Org)
  15. ^ a b Cohen, Tom. I was sinking fast . . . I had to get out." Associated Press via The Independent. November 25, 1996. Retrieved on December 29, 2008.
  16. ^ a b c d e f g McNeil Jr., Donald (November 25, 1996). Terror in the Air, and Frantic Rescue From the Sea. The New York Times.
  17. ^ "Hijacked Ethiopian Jet Crashes with 19 Indians Aboard." India Abroad. November 29, 1996. Retrieved on January 29, 2010.
  18. ^ Plane Is Hijacked; Crashes In Ocean Off East Africa. The New York Times. November 24, 1996. Page 11, New York Edition. Retrieved on January 29, 2010.
  19. ^ "Ethiopia mourns crash victims," CNN. November 25, 1996. Retrieved on November 24, 2009.
  20. ^ a b c "`I Thought I Had Finished My Life' -- Tale Depicts Drunken Abductors Who Fought With Pilot -- Survivors Tell Of Terror As Jetliner Tumbles Across Ocean's Surface." Washington Post via Associated Press and The Seattle Times. November 25, 1996. Retrieved on January 29, 2010.
  21. ^ "British woman swam from hijack plane". The Independent. 25 November 1996. Retrieved 23 August 2011.
  22. ^ Ethiopian airline crash kills at least 50. CNN. November 23, 1996.
  23. ^ "Flight Safety Foundation Award in Flight Professionalism". Flight Safety Foundation. Retrieved 2009-10-08.
  24. ^ Episode Seven, Mo & Me
  25. ^ "Mohamed Amin, 53, Camera Eye During the Famine in Ethiopia," The New York Times. November 26, 1996.
  26. ^ "CIA Holds Annual Memorial Ceremony to Honor Fallen Colleagues". CIA press release. Retrieved 2012-05-22.
  27. ^ "No Resting Place," Brown University Alumni Magazine
  28. ^ "Bizarre ordeal recounted in Ethiopian Airlines crash." CNN. November 24, 1996. Retrieved on December 29, 2008.
  29. ^ [1]
External image
image icon Photos of ET-AIZ on airliners.net
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