Passengers are evacuated from a hijacked Ethiopian Airlines Plane on the airport in Geneva, Switzerland, Monday, Feb. 17, 2014. A hijacked aircraft traveling from Addis Abeda, Ethiopia, to Rome, Italy, has landed at Geneva's international airport early Monday morning. Swiss authorities have arrested the hijacker. (AP Photo/Keystone, Salvatore Di Nolfi)
The co-pilot of an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 767 was arrested Monday for hijacking his own plane and diverting it to Geneva.
Hailemedehin Abera Tagegn waited until the captain went to the lavatory and then took the opportunity to seize control of the flight from Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, to Rome.
After locking his superior out of the cockpit, he landed in Geneva in an audacious attempt to seek asylum in Switzerland, where he tried to escape by climbing out of the cockpit window and sliding down a rope to the tarmac below.
None of the 202 passengers and crew was injured and Hailemedehin was immediately arrested. Police said he had been unarmed.
Passengers were evacuated on to the runway with their hands above their heads.
The Ethiopian government said the co-pilot apparently took control of the aircraft early in the flight when it was in Sudan’s airspace and then flew all the way to Geneva as the captain hammered on the cockpit door. In a recorded radio conversation, a man believed to be Hailemedehin is heard requesting asylum in Switzerland. “Do you know if we will get the asylum in time?” he asks. “We need asylum or assurance that we will not be transferred to [inaudible].”
Hailemedehin, 30, who had worked for Ethiopian Airlines for five years, said that he “felt threatened in his country and wants to seek asylum in Switzerland”, according to Eric Grandjean, a Geneva police spokesman.
Ethiopia, a de facto one-party state, has been accused of serious human rights abuses. Human Rights Watch says the government “severely restricts basic rights of freedom of expression, association and assembly
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