Confession: I am less scared of crashing inside a plane than I am worried I may be a hijack victim. So my heart goes out to 200 passengers today. News sources are reporting that Ethiopian Airlines Flight 702, a Boeing 767-300 (registration: ET- AMF) was hijacked over Sudan. Social media posts suggested that the plane’s transponder began squawking”7500″.

Flight 702 departed from Addis Ababa at 00:30 (local time) and had been scheduled to arrive in Rome (FCO) at 04:40 (local time). The flight was scheduled to fly on to Milan (MXP) but that segment has been cancelled (left).

 

 

 

 

The flight diverted to Geneva, Switzerland, where the plane landed after circling for a long period.

This map from flightradar24 (I love this app!) shows the strange route the flight took.

In 1996, an Ethiopian Airlines 767 operating as flight 961 ditched into the water after a hijacking due to a lack of fuel. 125 of the 175 passengers and crew on board the plane died, along with the hijackers. The remainder survived with injuries. The three hijackers had been seeking asylum in Australia.

Updates welcome and I will try to add more details as learn of them.