Survivors Tell of Air Hijack Terror

The Australian
November 26, 1996

As rescuers retrieved the bodies of the 123 people killed when a hijacked airliner crashed into the sea, survivors yesterday told of the terrifying last moments before the aircraft plunged into the turquoise-blue waters off the Comoros Islands.

Fifty-two people survived Saturday's crash after the Ethiopian Boeing 767 flight ET 961 was hijacked during a flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi.

An unknown number of hijackers diverted the plane carrying 175 people, telling the crew to fly to Australia via Mauritius. The reasons for the hijacking remained unclear.

Two of the hijackers, both Ethiopian nationals, were among those plucked from the wreckage of the plane which came down on a shallow reef off the tiny Indian Ocean islands, barely missing a hotel.

Survivors said the hijackers pushed flight attendants aside and stormed the cockpit, beating the co-pilot and forcing him out. As passengers listened in terror, the air pirates, at least one of them apparently drunk, spewed threats over the jet's public address system.

"They said: 'We escaped from prison. We are against the government. We are hijacking the plane. We have an explosive. If anybody moves, we'll explode it'," one passenger recalled.

As the hijackers battled the captain for the controls and the engines shut down for lack of fuel, the Ethiopian jetliner cart-wheeled into the sea in a violent crash.

The survivors included the pilot and co-pilot.

Captain Leul Abate said two hijackers entered the cockpit, while a third remained in the body of the plane.

He said one was wielding an axe, while the other was holding a broken whisky bottle and appeared drunk.

"They made the co-pilot leave and hit me several times when I told them that we did not have enough fuel to go to Australia," the captain said.

For three hours, Captain Abate guided the jetliner on his own and tried to reason with the hijackers, asking that he be allowed to land in the Seychelles or the Comoros Islands to refuel.

Finally, the pilot went on the public address system himself to announce that the jet was running out of fuel and he was going to try to ditch the plane in the sea.

The hijackers fought the pilot for control of the aircraft in the last minutes aloft, the co-pilot said: "They were interfering with procedures, grabbing at the instruments."

Survivors said a wing clipped the water, then the body of the plane slammed into the sea.

"The first bump was really gentle. Then the second one was really hard," a US passenger said.

"The third one was even harder, like a 70mph (110km/h) auto accident," he said.

"The last one was like an earthquake."

Copyright 1996 Nationwide News Pty Limited

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