The Ballad of Younis and Sofia

Lyrics

Younes Khayati and Sofia Figuigui were co-pilots of Royal Air Maroc Twin Engine ATR 42 that crashed into the Atlas Mountains 10 minutes into a routine flight from Agadir to Casablanca on August the 20th, 1994.

Mohamed Mouffid, civil aviation Director at the Ministry of Transport said the only reason for the accident is the deliberate desire of the captain who switched off the automatic pilot, hurled the aircraft at the ground. It was a deliberate decision to commit suicide.

Amina ben Tayeb, Khayati's mother said, "My son is sane. He cannot commit suicide, much less kill anyone, because he loves everyone. He has no problems, family or otherwise."

Chronology

Amor and Language

"Relatives cast doubt on suicide air crash" as it appeared in the UK newspaper *The Times*, August 27th, 1994

Interpretations

Based on real airline crash Royal Air Maroc Flight 630
Some of the information quoted in the song may be from an AP article, "Relatives cast doubt on suicide air crash"
"Younes" is misspelled as "Younis" in the song's title. The above article misspells it "Yunes"
The format of the title is likely a reference to the traditional murder ballad genre

Song themes