Ethiopian Flight 961: Hijacking, Crash, Survival

On November 23, 1996, an Ethiopian Airlines B-767 aircraft en route from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to Nairobi, Kenya, was hijacked by three Ethiopian males. The aircraft carried 163 passengers and 12 crew members from over 35 nations. The hijacking occurred at approximately 11:20 a.m. (zulu) in Ethiopian airspace. Approximately 20 minutes into the flight, the three Ethiopian males separately approached the cockpit from the rear of the aircraft. At least two of them had been in the lavatory before the aircraft took off. One of the men ran down the aisle toward the cockpit shouting statements that could not be understood, and his two accomplices followed soon after. The hijackers were described as young (mid-twenties), inexperienced, psychologically fragile, and intoxicated. They were clean shaven and dressed in Western clothes, and one wore a black stocking cap which covered his face.