Ethiopian hijack pilot suffered family loss
Print Edition
The Ethiopian pilot who hijacked a flight to Rome and took it to Geneva had recently lost his uncle, a relative said yesterday, suggesting anguish may have left him on edge.
Alemu Asmamaw, another uncle, said that 31-year-old co-pilot Hailemedhin Abera was in emotional distress over the past month following the sudden death of “a very close” uncle.
The pilot used to call family before international trips, but had since stopped doing so and appeared to distance himself from his relatives, Alemu said.
“I fear that the death of his uncle... has put a strain on his life,” he said.
He named the deceased uncle as Emiru Seyoum and said he taught at Ethiopia’s Addis Ababa University. He did not say how Hailemedhin’s uncle died.
Hailemedhin, who had worked for Ethiopian Airlines for five years, on Monday locked the pilot of a Rome-bound flight out of the cockpit and then as co-pilot diverted the plane to Geneva, where he used a rope to lower himself out of a window and asked for political asylum.
The jetliner carrying 200 passengers and crew took off from the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, on a flight to Milan and then Rome, but sent a distress message over Sudan that it had been hijacked, an Ethiopian official said. Once the plane was over Europe, Italian and French jets accompanied it.
One passenger said the hijacker threatened to crash the plane if the pilot didn’t stop pounding on the locked door.
The family was “extremely shocked” that Hailemedhin hijacked a plane, Alemu said, describing his nephew as “too proud of Ethiopian Airlines.”
He said the pilot was a devoted Christian who “even used to ask his father to pray for him to return safe” from flights.
“They never imagined that he would do such things ever,” he said of the hijacking.
Swiss police said Hailemedhin told them he felt “threatened” in Ethiopia.
Geneva prosecutor Olivier Jornot said he will be charged with taking hostages, punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
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