Brian Tetley, a Kenyan journalist attached to Nation and a columnist at Standard Newspaper, was among the passengers who perished after a plane plunged into the Indian Ocean on Saturday, November 23, 1996.
Tetley was on a flight with the late veteran video journalist Mohamed Amin.
According to reports, the plane which departed Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, was destined for Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).
As soon as the plane levelled up, three hijackers demanded to be flown to Australia. However, the exchange continued until the plane plunged into the Indian Ocean.
Before the ordeal, Tetley's colleague, Amin, had tried to engage the hijackers. One of the survivors recalled Amin lobbying other passengers to take on the hijackers.
"At one point mo asked us to fight the hijackers since they were only three but nobody was brave. Mo had only hand remember. It was brave of him,” stated Michael Odenya, survivor, in an interview with Camerapix crew
Before Tetley was confirmed dead, several international media publications, including Associated Press (AP), reported that he was missing. His family corroborated the reports.
His Early Story
The Manchester-born writer worked as a sub-editor for the Evening Telegraph before he emigrated to Kenya in 1968.
After settling in the country, Tetley took on a dual UK-Kenyan nationality.
In Kenya, reports indicated that he worked at Nation. At the media publication, he was tasked, alongside the late Philip Ochieng, to write the assassination story of the late politician Tom Mboya in 1969.
They were locked in an editorial room and given a crate full of booze to help them complete the assignment. Reports alleged that several bottles of alcohol were placed in his coffin during his burial.
Besides working for Nation and Standard, Tetley was Amin's biographer and scriptwriter. He also wrote several books detailing his experience in Kenya and working with the late veteran cameraman Mo Amin.
