Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961
The aircraft involved in the accident is seen here at Frankfurt am Main Airport in 1993
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|
| Hijacking summary | |
|---|---|
| Date | 23 November 1996 |
| Summary | Fuel exhaustion due to hijacking, water landing |
| Site | Grande Comore, Comoros |
| Passengers | 163 (including 3 hijackers) |
| Crew | 12 |
| Fatalities | 125 (including 3 hijackers) |
| Injuries (non-fatal) | 46 |
| Survivors | 50 |
| Aircraft type | Boeing 767-260ER |
| Operator | Ethiopian Airlines |
| 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 |
Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961, a Boeing 767-200ER, was hijacked on 23 November 1996, en route from Addis Ababa to Nairobi on an Addis Ababa–Nairobi–Brazzaville–Lagos–Abidjan service, by three Ethiopians seeking asylum in Australia. The plane crash-landed in the Indian Ocean near Grande Comore, Comoros Islands, due to fuel exhaustion; 125 of the 175 passengers and crew on board died, along with the hijackers. The official accident report stated that four of the survivors were uninjured.
The incident is one of the few documented water landing attempts of a widebody airliner with survivors. Until the 11 September 2001 attacks, it was the deadliest hijacking involving a single aircraft, and the second deadliest hijacking after the 1990 Guangzhou Baiyun airport collisions.
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. 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 May 1991 and February 1992 when it was leased to Air Tanzania, the airplane spent its life in the Ethiopian Airlines fleet. It was 9 years old at the time the incident took place.
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Wikipedia