Flight 961 had departed Addis Ababa bound for Nairobi with 163 passengers and 12 crew. After the hijackers took control, Captain Abate faced an impossible situation: comply with a demand that would guarantee fuel exhaustion over open ocean, or stall for time and find land. He chose deception. Instead of turning east toward Australia, he followed the African coastline southward, keeping land in sight while telling the hijackers they were on course. When the three men noticed land still visible below, they forced a course change east over the Indian Ocean. Abate quietly adjusted his heading toward the Comoro Islands, which lay roughly midway between Madagascar and the African mainland. For nearly three hours, the captain held this fragile balance -- appearing to obey while secretly navigating toward the only possible landing site within fuel range.

As the Boeing 767 approached the Comoros, fuel gauges told the final story. Both engines flamed out in sequence, and the aircraft began gliding. Abate aimed for Prince Said Ibrahim International Airport on Grande Comore, but a physical struggle with one of the hijackers in the cockpit caused him to lose his visual reference to the runway. With no engines, no second chance, and the hijackers still fighting for the controls, Abate made a decision that would become one of the most documented emergency landings in aviation history. He turned toward the shallow waters off Le Galawa Beach, near Mitsamiouli at the northern tip of Grande Comore, and attempted to ditch the aircraft approximately 500 meters offshore.

The Boeing struck the water at high speed with its left wing low, cartwheeling across the surface before breaking apart. Hotel guests and local fishermen watched from the beach, then rushed into the water to pull survivors from the wreckage. Of the 175 people aboard, 50 survived the initial impact and ditching. But the final death toll -- 125 killed -- was made worse by a tragic irony. Despite Captain Abate's repeated warnings over the intercom, many passengers inflated their life jackets while still inside the cabin. When seawater flooded the fuselage, the inflated vests pinned them against the ceiling, trapping them underwater. Those who waited to inflate their jackets outside the aircraft had a far better chance of survival.

Among the dead was Mohamed Amin, one of the most important photojournalists of the 20th century, whose 1984 footage of the Ethiopian famine prompted a global relief effort and inspired the Band Aid and Live Aid concerts. Amin was reportedly standing near the cockpit in the final moments, arguing or negotiating with one of the hijackers. CIA operative Leslianne Shedd, traveling undercover, was seen helping other passengers -- including an elderly Ethiopian woman -- put on life vests before the impact. She did not survive. A star was later placed on the CIA Memorial Wall in her honor. American passenger Frank Huddle had specifically chosen Ethiopian Airlines for his Kenya safari because of its Federal Aviation Administration certification, reasoning that a daytime flight would be safer.

A memorial service was held at Galawa on November 30, 1996. Captain Leul Abate, who survived the crash, received the Flight Safety Foundation's Professionalism Award for his extraordinary airmanship under impossible conditions. The ditching of Flight 961 became one of the most studied emergency water landings in commercial aviation, influencing safety procedures worldwide. It demonstrated, with devastating clarity, why cabin safety briefings instruct passengers never to inflate life jackets until outside the aircraft. The crash site lies in the shallow turquoise waters just off Grande Comore's northern coast, where the volcanic island's slopes drop steeply into the Indian Ocean. The hijackers -- three men in their mid-twenties described in the investigation report as inexperienced, psychologically fragile, and intoxicated -- all died in the crash.