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Air Afrique Flight 056

24 Jul 1987 · Geneva Airport, Geneva, Switzerland

McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 · Aircraft hijacking

From Maya-Maya International Airport (BZV) to Charles de Gaulle International Airport (CDG)

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Event

Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
Accident
Event fatalities
1 · all aircraft and ground
Ground fatalities
Unknown
Occupants
158
Survivors
157
InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
30
OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
Airline

McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30

Category
Airplane · from aircraft type
RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
TU-TAL
Operator
Air Afrique
Onboard fatalities
1
Route
From Maya-Maya International Airport (BZV)To Charles de Gaulle International Airport (CDG)

Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.

From the Wikipedia article

On 24 July 1987, Air Afrique Flight 056, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 operating the Brazzaville–Bangui–Rome–Paris service was hijacked and diverted to Geneva Airport. One passenger was killed and 30 people were injured.

Background

The hijacker was 21-year-old Hussein Ali Mohammed Hariri, a Lebanese Shiite who had ties to Hezbollah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). He had been imprisoned in Israel in 1984 on terrorism charges, but was released in 1985 as part of an International Red Cross exchange for captured Israeli soldiers.

Hijacking

Hariri boarded the flight carrying a pistol and an explosives belt with 500 grams of TNT. Hariri hijacked the flight after it departed Rome Fiumicino Airport and demanded the aircraft to be flown to Beirut. The captain, Eduard Artisu, responded that there was insufficient fuel for the aircraft to reach Beirut without a refueling stop and offered to make a refueling stop in Geneva,Switzerland, which Hariri accepted.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Air Afrique Flight 056” (revision 1353003154, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article

Sources

Wikipedia article: Air Afrique Flight 056
Article
Air Afrique Flight 056
Revision
1353003154 · 2026-05-07 · retrieved 2026-09-18
Wikidata
Q16507684
Licence
Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
Record
Wikipedia article "Air Afrique Flight 056" (page 65712130, revision 1353003154)
Date
Wikipedia infobox: date
Place and country
Wikipedia infobox: site
Map position
Wikipedia article coordinates
Aircraft, operator and route
Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
Operation
flight number in the article title
Fatalities
Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
Ground fatalities
not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
Summary
Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
  • Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.