Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 — 1996 hijacking, water ditching of aircraft
The first recorded ditching of a wide-body aircraft, resulting in 125 deaths after hijackers forced fuel exhaustion over the Indian Ocean.
Key Facts
- Date
- 23 November 1996
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 767-200ER
- Total onboard
- 175 people
- Deaths
- 125 people
- Survivors
- 50 people
- Historic first
- First wide-body aircraft ocean ditching on record
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Three Ethiopian nationals seeking asylum in Australia hijacked Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 shortly after departure from Addis Ababa. They seized the Boeing 767-200ER and refused to allow the crew to land or refuel, demanding the aircraft continue toward Australia despite insufficient fuel for such a journey.
On 23 November 1996, with fuel exhausted, the crew attempted an emergency water landing in the Indian Ocean near Grande Comore, Comoros Islands. The aircraft struck the ocean surface, broke apart, and sank. Of the 175 people aboard, 125 died, including all three hijackers and six of the twelve crew members.
The crash became the first documented ditching of a wide-body aircraft and drew international attention to aviation security vulnerabilities and the dangers of in-flight hijackings over water. Fifty people survived. The event was widely studied by aviation safety investigators examining survivability factors in open-water emergency landings.