There's Something You Need to Know

Andy Meekins knew this, and as the Ethiopian Airlines jet that he was on was moments away from crashing into the Indian Ocean, he risked his own temporal safety so that others might have eternal safety.

This is the biblical man, 1996.

The wheels of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 were freed from the runway at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to make the two and a half hour flight to Nairobi, Kenya.

There were 175 passengers and crew on board the Boeing 767 piloted by the very experienced and capable pilot Captain Luli Bato.

For the 42-year-old pilot with over 11,500 total hours in the air, this flight must have seemed like a walk in the park for such a capable captain.

but all that changed less than an hour into the flight.

At approximately 9.29 a.m., three young men who looked to be Ethiopian men forced their way into the plane's cockpit.

According to one report, one of the men ran down the aisle toward the cockpit shouting statements that could not be understood, and his two accomplices followed soon after.

The first hijacker was wielding a small axe that was already on board for emergency use.

The second was carrying a small fire extinguisher, likely taken from the same emergency cabinet and building it like a weapon.

The last hijacker was carrying a small box which he said was a bomb.

Some believe that it was only the container for the whiskey bottle that he held in the other hand.

It is reported that all three of the hijackers were intoxicated.

Eyewitnesses to the events that day said that the men were stealing drinks while the flight attendant's back was turned.

Despite their inebriated condition, they overpowered the co-pilot, 35-year-old Yanis Makoura, and shoved him back into the passenger section of the aircraft.

Once they had control of the cockpit, they made an announcement over the aircraft's intercom.

Speaking in America, which is Ethiopian's official language, French and English, They said that they had hijacked the plane and if anyone tried to interfere they had a bomb and they would use it to blow up the plane.

Although the situation was frightening and alarming, people remained relatively calm.

The truth be known, This was the 17th time in six years that Ethiopians had been involved in hijacking.

Since the communist regime was overthrown in 1991, Ethiopia had been plagued by terrorist attacks, including hijackings by soldiers from the ousted government.

The hijackers then made their demands.

They wanted to reroute the flight to Australia.

They claimed to be dissidents from the Ethiopian government and wanted asylum in Australia.

Evidently, one of the hijackers had been reading the Inflat magazine that said that a fully fueled Boeing 767 had the capability of making a flight all the way to Australia.

The hijackers believed that the plane had been fully fueled back in Addis Ababa.