The men threatened to blow the plane up in flight if the pilots did not obey their demands. They declared in Amharic, French and English that if anyone tried to interfere, they had a bomb and they would use it to blow up the plane.
Authorities later determined that the purported bomb was actually a covered bottle of liquor. When the hijackers demanded the plane be flown to Australia, where they demanded asylum, the captain tried to explain they had only enough fuel for the scheduled flight and thus could not even make a quarter of the way, but the hijackers did not believe him. Instead of flying towards Australia, the captain flew along the African coastline.
The hijackers noticed that land was still visible and forced the pilot to steer east. The captain secretly headed for the Comoros Islands, located between the African coast and Madagascar. Of the passengers and staff members from the flight, only 50 passengers, including U. Ambassador Frank Huddle, survived. Ambassador to Mauritius Harold W. Geisel flew to the small island and coordinated efforts to get the deceased Americans returned to the United States.
This was no small feat given the incompetence of local authorities, who forced delivery of the bodies to the airport in a dump truck; the lack of facilities; and the obstinance of one particular NSC official, which caused the Ambassador to react in a less-than-diplomatic manner. Geisel was interviewed by Charles Stuart Kennedy beginning in June The History Channel created a short video, using computer-generated images and footage filmed by tourists on a nearby beach.
You can also read about the Lockerbie bombing and other terrorist incidents. Go here to read more about the Pan Am crash in Bali. We had no representation on Comoros, of course, that was from us. We had a few people who we knew, including missionaries and we got information as quickly as we could. They were tracking the plane; it was an Ethiopian Airways plane, which tragically crashed just about a mile from the airport when it ran out of fuel.
