Ethiopian Airlines Flight 708
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.Summary
Minutes after departing from Haile Selassie I International Airport bound for Paris, when the aircraft was flying at some, seven members of the Eritrean Liberation Front stood up and tried to gain control of the plane. A hand grenade that was armed by one of the hijackers was rolled down the aisle by a passenger. The grenade exploded in the rear part of the fuselage, some 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. Despite this, the crew turned back the airplane to the airport of origin and managed to land it safely; it sustained minor damages that were repaired later.
Security guards —there were six of them aboard— opened fire at the terrorists, killing six of the hijackers on board, while the seventh one died in a hospital.Footnotes
