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Honeymooners capture dramatic images of Ethiopian jet crash
November 26, 1996
Web posted at: 5:00 p.m. EST (2200 GMT)MORONI, Comoro Islands (CNN) -- A dramatic videotape was released Tuesday showing Saturday's crash of hijacked Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 into the Indian Ocean, as investigators debated whether two men in custody were among the hijackers.
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Vivo's technical FAQ Ethiopian investigators have concluded that two men in the custody of Comoro Island police are not the hijackers responsible for the crash, but police have refused to release the men, pending their own probe.
Ethiopian Police Commissioner Guetachew Assefa said Tuesday that the three hijackers were among the 127 people who died when the Boeing 767 jet ran out of fuel. The pilot, who survived, ditched the plane in the ocean 500 yards off the coast of the Comoros.
The video of the crash captured the plane's fatal descent. It was shot by a South African couple who witnessed the crash as they sunned themselves on the beach of their honeymoon hotel in the Comoros. The wife began filming the low-flying plane because she and her husband thought it was an air show for tourists.
The co-pilot, Yonas Mekuria, told authorities that he could not identify the two men who had been arrested as the hijackers.
"He did not identify them, yet he knew two of the three hijackers," said Ethiopian Airlines spokesman Sultan Mohammed.
The Ethiopian state radio said Tuesday morning that the two men in custody were from Djibouti and Kenya, while the three hijackers were Ethiopian.
Commander Ismail Moegni Daho, head of the Comoro Island paramilitary police, said Tuesday that the two men would remain in custody, and gave no estimate of how long his investigation would take.
Earlier, the Ethiopian government had requested extradition of the two men, and Comoros Island Secretary of State for Information Assoumani Youssouf said his country was still operating under the information from that request.
The two men have not been charged in the hijacking. The jetliner was carrying 175 passengers and crew when it was hijacked shortly after taking off from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The hijackers demanded that they be taken to Australia, and refused to allow the pilot to land the plane when he told them the jet was out of fuel.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
Related stories:
- Bizarre ordeal recounted in Ethiopian Airlines crash - November 24, 1996
- Ethiopian airline crash kills at least 50 - November 23, 1996
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