Prince Said Ibrahim International Airport - Accidents and Incidents

Accidents and Incidents

• On 27 November 2012 an Inter Iles Air Embraer EMB 120ER Brasilia (registration number D6-HUA) was underway from Moroni to Anjouan (both in Comoros Islands) on a charter flight with 25 passengers and 4 crew, when after taking off from Moroni's Prince Said Ibrahim International Airport it lost height, and while attempting to return to the airport, waterlanded 200 meters off the coast, about 5 km north of the airport. Local fishermen rescued everybody on board. There were only minor injuries.

• On June 30, 2009, Yemenia Flight 626, an Airbus A310, departed from Sana'a International Airport in Sana'a, Yemen, en route to Prince Said Ibrahim International Airport. Reportedly with 11 crew and 142 passengers aboard, including 66 French nationals, the aircraft crashed into the Indian Ocean on approach to the destination airport.

• On November 23, 1996, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 was hijacked by three men seeking political asylum, demanding that the Boeing 767-260 be flown to Australia. Captain Leul Abate told them that the aircraft was capable of the flight, but they would have to land and refuel. The hijackers thought he was lying. Leul hoped to land at this airport, but had already run out of fuel and the Boeing 767 crash-landed in the ocean off the coast of the island. Only 50 out of 175 survived, because the surviving passengers had heard Captain Leul's instructions to put life vests on, but not inflate them. The passengers who did not survive likely inflated them and drowned under the wreckage. The aircraft was on a flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi.

While the runway is considered long enough for modern jetliners, landings can still prove difficult because of frequently changing weather conditions and the surrounding mountains of the island.