„Co-pilot detained after Ethiopian Airlines flight forced to land in Geneva
Crew member seeks asylum after taking control of flight ET702 from Addis Ababa to Rome and diverting course to Switzerland
[…] Police said the co-pilot, who has asked to be granted asylum, took control of the plane when the pilot went to the toilet, then landed and left through the window on a rope.Authorities said the situation was under control and no passengers or crew had been injured.
Flight ET 702 had been diverted from its original destination of Rome. […] An Ethiopian government spokesman, Redwan Hussein, told Reuters the flight had made a scheduled stop in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, where he said the hijacker or hijackers might have boarded the flight.
“We don’t know where they are from or how many they are but it looks like the hijacker or hijackers boarded the flight in Khartoum,” Redwan told Reuters shortly before police announced they had detained the co-pilot.
In an apparent recording of a radio communication between the aircraft and air traffic control posted on Twitter, a demand for asylum can clearly be heard.The authenticity of the recording could not be independently verified and it was not immediately clear whether it was a hijacker or pilot speaking from the plane […]“