Flight Safety Foundation
Professionalism Award in Flight Safety

presented to

Capt. Leul Abate
Ethiopian Airlines

For fulfilling his professional duty, while under extreme duress, to provide the best opportunity for the survival of his passengers and crew.

Capt. Abate was in command of an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 767 that was hijacked on Nov. 23, 1996. The hijackers assaulted the flight crew with a fire ax and a fire-extinguisher bottle shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa. They ordered the first officer from the flight deck and directed the pilot to fly the aircraft to Australia, threatening to explode a bomb aboard the aircraft if the demand was not met.

Although the order was impossible to follow because there was not sufficient fuel aboard, the hijackers, apparently intoxicated, insisted that Abate maintain a course for Australia, where they intended to seek political asylum. Told by the hijackers to cease radio communication, and operating under a continuous threat of violence, the captain tried unsuccessfully to persuade his captors to desist from their plan.

Unknown to the hijackers, Abate altered the airplane’s course, and contrary to their orders, warned the passengers to prepare for a forced landing. When the fuel was exhausted, Capt. Abate and his first officer, who had finally been permitted back in the cockpit, made an engines-out forced landing in shallow water off the northern tip of Grande Comore Island. The hijackers were among the 125 passengers and crew members who did not survive the accident; 50 passengers and crew members survived.

Faced with a dangerous situation created by violent men, Abate, acting alone, pursued a well-calculated course of action. His strategy avoided what would otherwise have very likely been the loss of life of everyone on his airplane.

Flight Safety Foundation and the award sponsor, Kidde Technologies Inc., are proud to recognize Capt. Leul Abate for his fulfillment of professional duty.

FSF 50th annual International Air Safety Seminar
Washington, D.C.
November 5, 1997

Stuart Matthews
Chairman, President and CEO
Flight Safety Foundation

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