Amateur video filmed by one of the passengers on the hijacked #ET702

One of the passengers filmed the hijacking drama inside the Ethiopian Airline flagship with his/her cellphone just Filmed Aboard Hijacked Plane at Rome Airport. In this age of technology and social media, everybody can be a journalist. The co-pilot of an Ethiopian Airlines jetliner locked the pilot out of the cockpit, commandeered the plane and headed for Geneva.

Who Is Hailemedhin Abera Tegegn The Ethiopian Airlines Hijacker, And Why Was He Desperate For Asylum?

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia – Airline passengers en route to Italy were rerouted to Switzerland on Monday morning in a peaceful but puzzling hijacking episode, carried out by the plane's own co-pilot. 

Hailemedhin Abera 

Ethiopian Airlines flight ET702 was headed from Ethiopia's capital city of Addis Ababa to Rome when the captain took a bathroom break. The first officer then locked himself inside the cockpit, reported the hijacking to airport transponders, and aimed his Boeing 767 toward Geneva. Reports indicate that the passengers were blissfully unaware of the situation until they touched down. They were heavily searched upon exiting the aircraft, after which the airline began efforts to get all 193 passengers – mostly Italian nationals – to their final destinations.

The Hijacking of #ET702 & TPLF cadres' PR Blunder

"Swiss authorities say the hijacker of an Ethiopian Airlines flight forced to land at Geneva's international airport was the plane's co-pilot." Abc News

"An Ethiopian government spokesman told Reuters he believes the hijacker boarded the plane on a scheduled stop in Khartoum, Sudan's capital." VOA

To begin with ET702 didn't land in Khartoum and since when co-pilots are boarding in Stop-over? Redwan Hussien, TPLF's die-hard cadre makes his "career" and masters a laughing stock. AP photo shows rope purportedly used by co-pilot aboard Ethiopian flight to escape out of plane; obviously the propagandist has no clue what's going at the hijacked Ethiopian Airlines. These days, even those who considered by many as the most privileged in society want to leave Ethiopia and seek asylum somewhere.    

The airline says flight ET-702 from Addis Ababa to Rome was "forced to proceed" to Geneva, where it landed early on Monday (local time).

Airport spokesman Bertrand Staempfli told reporters the co-pilot took control of the plane when the pilot went to the toilet.

"He said he felt threatened in his country and wants to seek asylum in Switzerland," he said.

After the plane landed the co-pilot left through the window on a rope and surrendered to police.

Police say the man was not armed, and there was no risk to crew or passengers at any time.

State-run Ethiopian television said there had been 193 passengers on board the Boeing aircraft, including 140 Italian nationals.

The brief drama caused the closure of the airport and cancellation of some short-haul flights. Some incoming flights were diverted to other airports.

Hundreds of passengers booked on disrupted flights scrambled to change their tickets.

A flight tracking app for mobile devices showed the flight circling over the Swiss city several times before landing.

Ethiopian nationals and the Horn of Africa country's flag carrier have been involved in several hijackings in the past.

In 1993, an Ethiopian used a gun hidden in his hat to hijack a German passenger jet bound for New York. He was later sentenced to 20 years in a US prison.

Two years later, police in Greece overpowered an Ethiopian hijacker who held a knife to the throat of an Olympic Airways stewardess and demanded political asylum.

At least 50 people were killed when a hijacked Ethiopian Airlines passenger jet crashed in the Indian Ocean in 1996.

In 2001, a dozen Ethiopian students hijacked a plane carrying around 60 people and flew to Sudan.