Ethiopian Plane Forced to Geneva, Hijacker Nabbed

Local Editor

Ethiopian Airlines flight ET-702 to Italy has been hijacked and forced to land in Geneva. The hijacker was detained by local police. All passengers and crew are safe. Media reports clarified the plane was hijacked by its asylum-seeking pilot.
The Boeing 767-300 flight from Addis Abba to Rome "was forced to proceed to Geneva Airport," an Ethiopian Airlines press release said.

The plane landed at Geneva International Airport . All passengers and crew are currently safe the airline said.
It added it is "making immediate arrangements to fly its esteemed customers onboard the flight to their intended destinations."

Airport police said the hijacker has been arrested and the situation is "under control." No injuries have been reported in the incident.
Passengers were seen leaving the plane and being searched by police. Then they boarded a bus parked near the end of the runway away from the terminal building.
The Boeing 767-300 was flying over Sudan when it signaled a hijacking, said AirlineReporter.com, an industry news blog, which was the first to break the news.
A flight tracking app for mobile devices showed the flight circling over the Swiss city several times before landing.

An Ethiopian government spokesman, Redwan Hussein, stated that whoever was responsible for the hijacking may have boarded the plane during a scheduled stop in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum.

"We don't know where they are from or how many they are, but it looks like the hijacker or hijackers boarded the flight in Khartoum," Redwan said shortly before police announced they had the assailant in custody.

There are reports in local Swiss media that the plane was hijacked by its pilot, who was seeking asylum in the European country.
This version of events is backed by an alleged record of radio communication between the flight crew and GVA traffic control, in which the crew requests asylum or assurance that they would not be expelled from Switzerland.
GVA diverted or canceled at least 11 Monday arrivals amid the ET702 landing turmoil. The airport remained closed for approximately two hours while dealing with the emergency.

Ethiopian Airlines ET702 flies from Addis Abba to Milan via Rome. It was scheduled to land in the Italian capital at 4am local time [03:00 GMT] on Monday.
The airline press release reporting the plane diversion was briefly deleted from the airline's website minutes after publication, only to return shortly afterwards. The only difference between the two versions is the name of the flight, which was called ‘702' in the initial text, as opposed to ‘ET-702' in the revised version.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team