He had just wrapped up a regional summit in Arusha, Tanzania, where heads of state from Rwanda, Burundi, and neighboring countries had gathered to discuss regional security. The meeting dragged on, and Ntaryamira was in a rush to return home.

His own jet, a sleek Falcon, was out of commission, undergoing repairs in Switzerland. Instead, he had made the trip to Arusha in a painfully slow Beechcraft he had borrowed, what one might call a flying tractor by presidential standards.

Desperate to avoid a late-night arrival in Bujumbura, Ntaryamira decided to pull strings. According to his former security chief, Déo Ngendahayo, the Burundian president made an unplanned request to his Rwandan counterpart Juvénal Habyarimana and asked, quite literally, for a “lift”.

“He stood up and said, ‘I’m going to ask President Habyarimana for a ride. I’m running late. It wasn’t something we had planned. There was no time to discuss security. He made the decision on the spot,” Ngendahayo recalled.

Habyarimana agreed, but only had three extra seats; one for Ntaryamira himself, one for his minister, and one for his aide-de-camp. Ngendahayo, who was in charge of the president’s security, didn’t make the cut, an opportunity that would turn out to be a twist of fate that saved his life.

Earlier that day, Habyarimana had visited Gbadolite in Zaire to meet Mobutu Sese Seko. Intelligence had reportedly warned him that if he went to the summit in Arusha, his plane would be shot down. Still, he went, perhaps thinking he could outfly fate.

At 8 p.m., as the Dassault Falcon 50 approached Kanombe Airport, two missiles struck it from the sky. The plane exploded midair and crashed into the garden of Habyarimana’s own residence in Kanombe. Everyone on board died instantly, including Ntaryamira, the man who had begged for a faster ride home.

Ngendahayo has since denied any conspiracy suggesting Habyarimana brought Ntaryamira aboard to shield himself with another head of state. “It wasn’t like that,” he said. “He just asked. And Habyarimana said yes.”

A rushed decision, a borrowed seat, a fatal shortcut. In the end, the president of Burundi didn’t just miss his ride, he hitched one straight into history’s deadliest turning points.

The plane carrying Presidents Habyarimana and Ntaryamira was shot down by a missile on April 6, 1994.

A rushed decision, a borrowed seat, a fatal shortcut. The president of Burundi hitched a flight that plunged him straight to his death.