Captain
 

I was also surprised to read on Reddit that the French passenger didn't know anything about the captain.
I have seen the video of the interview (Rai News) of one of the business class passengers, in Italian (as you know passengers were mainly Italians going back to Rome from all over Africa). He states that the captain tried (with a group of 2-3 people) to knock down the cockpit door, and that the hijacker (at that point) threatened to crash the plane and, in order to convince them that he was serious about it, let the plane abruptly dive (at this point oxygen masks were deployed, and everybody on board thought that they were going to crash, terrible moments indeed). He also states that the hijacker requested the captain to stay seated in the area 'controlled' by a camera in the cabin (so that he could observe that the captain was sitting and not attempting anything).
As regards the asil request: I am Italian and Italy has one of the lowest level of financial aid to asil-seekers in Europe. We receive lots of requests just because a LOT of people arrive to our shores (the first arrival land is the only responsible for the arrival and for the Asyl-request, not that we particularly like the idea..) He probably thought Switzerland was a better economical option.
Also, statistics say only one fourth of asyl applications are accepted (on average) in Switzerland. People whose applications are not accepted must be sent back (that's called Ausschaffung). Point is: IF the country of origin does not respect human rights, the person cannot unwillingly be sent back. Ethiopia is of course officialy on the Swiss list of countries where people cannot be sent back. This means there is no possibility (me thinks) that after the jail time he will be sent back. Imagine they would not send back an asyl-seeker that arrived in Greece -as 'first arrival point'- because in Greece (alledgedly) asyl-seekers are kept in 'poor conditions'
Also the idea in European Courts is that you should not extradite (even a criminal, I've read a ruling just now) a person to a country that does not respect human rights (see article 19 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, year 2000).
That said what this person did is unacceptable. In the interviews people are visibly shocked and will suffer from this trauma God knows for how long..
I also think that there something completely insane in this whole story.

Swiss FA18s did runs up and down the lake to Geneva yesterday and today - hadn't seen them round here for months! Just in case maybe? :rolleyes:
Anyway, by now they'll be tucked up in bed...
All this is having a negative effect on the future referendum on the purchase of Gripens for the Air Force, as you can imagine!

The guy is now officially a suspect, a defense lawyer has been appointed, and a judge ruled the suspect will remain in custody while the investigation continues.

I just don't get this, surely as a 767 FO the guy would have been on the ground in places where asylum was available? Surely it would have been a better option to try and make it to somewhere after landing?

Could this have been a more serious event and he either changed his mind or was there to test responses?

After 9/11 any hijack will be viewed as a potential attack on ground targets, he must have known this and therefore put all the passengers lives in danger of being shot down.

And why exactly would the Swiss Air Force be intercepting a target in French airspace? If you look at a current map, post Roman Empire, you would learn that west, south & east Geneva is in French airspace. The north-west bound flight track did not penetrate Swiss airspace until the outskirts of the city. :eek:

last min ATC recordings
 

there was engine flame out.. and the other engine was about to follow from what can b heard on the atc comm.

Sorry, question, besides the fact its ETH702 the callsign here its something "XXXXXX-0001"...whats that "XXXXX" word before the 0001?

Tend to agree. It is almost as insane as the Egyptair into Prestwick, allegedly Syrian Asylum seekers, and the PIA into Stans Dead.


All media went into sleep mode ever since on these incidents. Not a jot.......


It's all terribly insane, or a lot of people know a lot more about these 'incidents' than they are letting on:zzz:

Janet, it is KK 0001

Very interesting, that (crazy) F/O locked out Capt. for good, but kept calling himself as "WE" in each radio transmission. :}

If the audio on jet-lover's post is correct (and it certainly sounds authentic) he needs to spend a fair amount of time in either a prison or a lunatic asylum.

To get the fuel so low that one eng flames out , whilst resisting the controllers attempts to get him to accept a landing clearance. . . . hang him I say.

Whatever he was suffering in Ethiopia ( & that, who knows, could have been very serious) why the Hell couldn't he have hired a Fiat Panda in FCO & driven to Le Suisse over any number of routes with possibly/probably uncontrolled borders. . or Hell, at worst, just driven through a fibreglass border post. Jeez :ugh: surely better than ditching a 767 in Lac Leman :eek:

Total RETARD ! !

Any reason for "KK"?
Could it be the Escort jets callsign?

....most probably so
as that flight official call sign is (Ethiopen) ET500
so KK0001 is pretty weird number

Ethiopian Hijack?
 

CaptPS: There is a thing called the Dublin agreement (which has been signed by Switzerland) that mandates an asylum seeker to deposit the demand at the point of entry in Europe. In your scenario he would have been immediately denied any chance of asylum in Switzerland and shipped back to Italy with no recourse whatsoever.

OK , understood. . . but previous comments Re endangering pax & persons underneath them still make it criminal negligence at best.

So….two weeks down the road.
What's been happening with this?