Description Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961

1 description

1.1 hijacking
1.2 crash landing
1.3 medical treatment , repatriation of bodies
1.4 investigation

description
hijacking

at 08:29 utc, when aircraft, referred zulu ethiopian airlines pilots, after last letter of registration, still flying on ethiopian airspace, 3 ethiopian men charged cockpit , hijacked aircraft after taking axe , fire extinguisher cockpit. according special airdisaster.com report, 1 of men ran down aisle toward cockpit, shouting statements not understood, , 2 accomplices followed after. airdisaster report described men young (mid-twenties), inexperienced, psychologically fragile, , intoxicated. ethiopian state-operated radio later identified hijackers 2 unemployed high-school graduates , nurse; names alemayehu bekeli belayneh, mathias solomon belay, , sultan ali hussein (they did not had description).

the men threatened blow plane in flight if pilots did not obey demands. hijackers said there eleven of them when in fact there three. after assaulting , forcing first officer yonas mekuria cabin, made announcement. on intercom, declared in amharic, french , english if tried interfere, had bomb , use blow plane. authorities later determined purported bomb covered bottle of liquor.

the hijackers demanded plane flown australia. leul tried explain had taken on fuel needed scheduled flight , not make quarter of journey, hijackers did not believe him. 1 of them took copy of airline s in-flight magazine selamta cockpit , turned fleet page pointed out photo of 767 stating maximum flying time of airplane 11 hours.

instead of flying towards australia, captain followed african coastline southward. hijackers noticed land still visible , forced pilot steer east. leul secretly headed comoro islands, lie midway between madagascar , african mainland.

crash landing

sequence showing ditching of aircraft; recorded south african tourist.

the plane out of fuel approached island group, hijackers continued ignore captain s warnings. out of options, leul began circle area, hoping land plane @ comoros main airport. forced leul land @ more 175 knots (324 km/h; 201 mph).

leul tried make emergency landing @ prince said ibrahim international airport on grande comore, fight hijackers @ last minute caused him lose visual point of reference, leaving him unable locate airport. while still fighting hijackers, tried ditch aircraft in shallow waters 500 yards (457 m) off le galawa beach hotel, near mitsamiouli @ northern end of grande comore island. leul attempted land parallel waves instead of against waves in effort smooth landing. seconds prior contacting water aircraft banked left ten degrees; left engine , wingtip struck water first. engine acted scoop , struck coral reef, slowing side of aircraft , causing boeing 767 tilt left. rest of aircraft entered water unevenly, causing break apart. except rear part of airframe, broken portions of fuselage sank rapidly. many passengers died because inflated life jackets in cabin, causing them trapped inside rising water.

island residents , tourists, including group of scuba divers , french doctors on vacation, came aid of crash survivors. tourist recorded video of et-aiz crashing. said had begun taping because believed 767 formed part of air show tourists.

medical treatment , repatriation of bodies

survivors taken mitsamiouli hospital. crash site less 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) away hospital. passengers transferred el-maarouf regional hospital centre (centre hospitalier national el maarouf) in moroni same day. 2 french survived , 19 injured transported réunion. in réunion, 1 of injured died, making death toll 125. excluding transported réunion, survivors transported nairobi , south africa.

at time there no mortuary in moroni, cold rooms used store 124 bodies.

investigation

on 3 december 1996 direction generale de l aviation civile des comores of comoros agreed delegate investigation of et961 ethiopian civil aviation authority (ecaa). air accidents investigation branch (aaib) analysed flight recorders.