Episode Details

Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 was hijacked on November 23, 1996, by three Ethiopian men seeking asylum in Australia. Shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa en route to Nairobi, the hijackers—armed with an axe and a fire extinguisher—stormed the cockpit and demanded the Boeing 767 fly to Australia, despite the captain warning they didn’t have enough fuel. Forced to keep flying, the aircraft eventually ran out of fuel over the Indian Ocean. The pilots attempted an emergency ditching near the Comoros Islands, but the plane struck the water at high speed, breaking apart.