In what became one of aviation’s most harrowing incidents, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 was hijacked on November 23, 1996, during a scheduled flight from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to Nairobi, Kenya. Twenty minutes after takeoff, three men, armed with a fire axe and a fire extinguisher, stormed the cockpit, demanding the pilot divert the plane to Australia.
Despite the impossibility of their demand due to insufficient fuel, the hijackers refused the pilot’s suggestion to refuel in Mombasa, Kenya. As the situation escalated, the aircraft, a Boeing 767-200ER, exhausted its fuel supply and ultimately crashed into the Indian Ocean near the Comoros Islands.
The pilot, Captain Leul Abtate, attempted to calm passengers while continuously trying to reason with the hijackers. His last, defiant words, captured by the black box, were, “I am already dead because I am flying an airplane without engine power.” Despite the hijackers’ threats, Captain Abtate took every action he could to guide the plane, saying, “I am not to be told where to be killed. I am a dead man handling an aircraft without fuel.”
When both engines failed, Captain Abtate prepared the passengers for a crash landing, saying, “We have run out of fuel, and we are losing one engine… I ask all passengers to react… to the hijackers.”
Tragically, the plane broke apart upon impact with a reef, resulting in the deaths of 125 people, including the six crew members and the three hijackers. However, Captain Abtate’s efforts were not in vain. Remarkably, 38 passengers survived, with two sustaining only minor injuries and four emerging from the wreckage unharmed.
Though the crash resulted in significant loss of life, experts have noted that the pilot’s brave and defiant actions during the hijacking likely saved many lives, making the incident a somber yet partially successful example of heroism in the face of terror.
Witnesses and locals approached the remains of the 767’s tail as it slowly washed ashore. (Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives)
