ERIC OLANDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Rescue teams searched for bodies trapped in the fuselage of a downed airliner over a day after it crashed over the Comero (ph) Islands in the Indian Ocean. Onshore survivors of the hijacked Ethiopian airliner are sharing harrowing stories of their experience.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They asked us to sit down and we should not move an inch. We sat there; for four hours the plane was still going on.</s>OLANDER: Of the 175 people on board, at least 52 survived. Some managed to swim the 500 meters to shore. Among the survivors, the United States consul general to Mumbai and his wife.</s>FRANK HUDDLE, U.S. CONSUL GEN. TO MUMBAI: Two or three people took over the plane. I think there were three, but I only saw two myself. It was about two or three hours, we started to run out of fuel. I don't know whether the pilot would not let them -- was not allowed to try to land or what, but eventually he ran out of fuel and he had one engine working.</s>OLANDER: The hijackers commandeered the flight soon after its takeoff from the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, on its way to Kenya. They demanded the plane be diverted to Australia, and ignored pilots' warnings that the aircraft was running low on fuel. Hospital sources say at least one of the hijackers survived and has been arrested. The motive for the hijacking is still unknown.
CNN 20: Hijacked Ethiopian Plane Crashes, November 23, 1996