Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961
ET-AIZ, the aircraft involved, pictured four months before the accident | |
| Hijacking | |
|---|---|
| Date | 23 November 1996 |
| Summary | Hijacking leading to fuel exhaustion, subsequent ditching |
| Site | Grande Comore, Comoros 11°22′22″S 43°18′25″E / 11.37278°S 43.30694°E |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Boeing 767-260ER |
| Operator | Ethiopian Airlines |
| IATA flight No. | ET961 |
| ICAO flight No. | ETH961 |
| Call sign | ETHIOPIAN 961 |
| 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 |
| Occupants | 175 (including 3 hijackers) |
| Passengers | 163 (including 3 hijackers) |
| Crew | 12 |
| Fatalities | 125 (including 3 hijackers) |
| Injuries | 46 |
| Survivors | 50 |
Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 was a scheduled international flight serving the route Addis Ababa–Nairobi–Brazzaville–Lagos–Abidjan. On 23 November 1996, the aircraft serving the flight, a Boeing 767-200ER, was hijacked en route from Addis Ababa to Nairobi 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 on board died in the water landing, including all three hijackers and six of the 12 crew. This is the first recorded instance of a ditching utilizing a wide-body aircraft.