Ethiopian Airlines Flight 702

Ethiopian Airlines Flight 702

ET-AMF, the aircraft involved in the incident, at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris
Hijacking summary
Date	17 February 2014
Summary	Hijacked by co-pilot
Site	Hijacked over Sudan, forced to land at Geneva
Passengers	193
Crew	9
Injuries (non-fatal)	0
Fatalities	0
Survivors	202 (all)
Aircraft type	Boeing 767-3BGER
Operator	Ethiopian Airlines
Registration	ET-AMF
Flight origin	Addis Ababa Bole International Airport, Ethiopia
Stopover	Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport, Italy
Destination	Malpensa Airport, Italy

Ethiopian Airlines Flight 702 was a scheduled flight from Addis Ababa to Milan via Rome on 17 February 2014. The aircraft, an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 767-300ER, was hijacked by the unarmed co-pilot en route from Addis Ababa to Rome, and landed at Geneva. All 202 passengers and crew were unharmed.

Incident

Flight 702 was scheduled to depart from Addis Ababa Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, at 00:30 EAT (UTC+3) on 17 February 2014. The aircraft's transponder began to emit squawk 7500—the international code for an aircraft hijacking—while flying north over Sudan. When the pilot exited the cockpit to use the restroom, the co-pilot locked the cockpit door and continued to fly the aircraft. The flight was scheduled to arrive at Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport in Rome, Italy, at 04:40 CET (UTC+1), before continuing to Malpensa Airport in Milan, Italy. Instead, the aircraft was flown to Geneva, Switzerland, where the copilot of flight 702 circled several times while communicating with air traffic control at Geneva International Airport while trying to broker political asylum for himself and an assurance that he would not be extradited to Ethiopia.

At 06:02 CET (UTC+1), the airplane landed at Geneva International Airport with about 10 minutes of fuel and the flameout of one engine. The co-pilot who had hijacked the aircraft, exited by scaling down a rope he threw out of the cockpit window and walked to police, where he identified himself as the hijacker and was arrested. The airport was shut down immediately following the landing. No passengers or crew were injured.

The flight was escorted by Italian Eurofighter and French Mirage fighter jets while traversing their respective airspaces. The Swiss Air Force did not respond because the incident occurred outside normal office hours, which are 08:00–12:00 and 13:30–17:00. According to a Swiss air force spokesman, "Switzerland cannot intervene because its airbases are closed at night and on the weekend... It's a question of budget and staffing." Switzerland relies on neighboring countries to police its airspace outside of regular business hours. The French air force has permission to escort suspicious flights into Swiss airspace, but does not have authority to shoot down an aircraft over Switzerland.

Hijacker

The hijacker of Flight 702 was Hailemedhin Abera Tegegn, 31, who was the co-pilot of flight 702. After landing the aircraft, he exited the cockpit by scaling down a rope he threw out the cockpit window. He was arrested by Swiss authorities.

In March 2015, an Ethiopian court convicted Tegegn in absentia to 19 years and 6 months jail.

In May 2016, the Switzerland government has granted asylum to the Ethiopian co-pilot who seized control of the Boeing 767-300.

See also

• China Airlines Flight 334, a Boeing 747 Taiwanese airline freighter hijacked by the Taiwanese pilot who flew it to Mainland China and defected
• Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961

External links

• Archived informal passenger account of the flight (from original)