There have been several air hijackings in the past involving Ethiopian nationals and the country's flag carrier.

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 flight attendant and demanded asylum.

The last senior Ethiopian official to seek asylum was Ermias Legesse, a state minister of information, who fled to the United States in 2009.

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

Reuters - AFP

(China Daily 02/18/2014 page12)