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1972 aircraft highjacking attempt
Ethiopian Airlines Flight 708
was a
Boeing 720-060B
, due to operate an international scheduled
Addis Ababa
?
Asmara
?
Athens
?
Rome
?
Paris
passenger service, that experienced a
hijacking
attempt on 8 December 1972.
[1]
[2]
Summary
[
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]
Minutes after departing from
Haile Selassie I International Airport
bound for
Paris
, when the aircraft was flying at some 29,000 feet (8,800 m),
[2]
seven members
[nb 1]
of the
Eritrean Liberation Front
stood up and tried to gain control of the plane.
[1]
Onboard security guards
opened fire on the hijackers, killing six. During the firefight a
hand grenade
that was armed by one of the hijackers was rolled down the aisle by a passenger.
[3]
The grenade exploded in the rear part of the fuselage, some 6 inches (150 mm) off the plane's centreline, blowing a hole in the cabin floor and damaging or severing several controls of the aircraft, including those of
throttle
of two engines, of the
rudder
, and of the
horizontal stabiliser
.
[2]
[3]
Despite this, the crew turned back the airplane to the airport of origin and managed to land it safely;
[2]
it sustained minor damages that were repaired later. The seventh hijacker died in hospital of their injuries
[1]
See also
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Notes
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- ^
There exists a discrepancy over the number of men and women in the group that attempted to hijack the aircraft, depending upon the source: five men and two women,
[1]
or six men and a woman.
[3]
References
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Aviation accidents and incidents in Ethiopia
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