In an incident report released on Wednesday, Somaliland Civil Aviation and Airports Authority said “On the night of Sunday, March 24, 2024, around 12:43 in East Africa, an Emirates Airways flight UAE722 flying at an altitude of 37,000ft, and an Ethiopian Airlines flight ETH690 at an altitude of 37,000ft almost collided after Mogadishu Control gave these two planes the same time and place where they were meeting.”
From the report, the Somaliland Air Traffic Controller’s intervention seems to have helped avoid the collision based on the report.
“A few minutes before the collision, the efforts made by the Somaliland Air Traffic Controllers and the pilot of the Ethiopian Airlines caused the pilot to quickly change his altitude and climb to 39000ft,” said Somaliland Civil Aviation and Airports Authority.
According to the statement, the problem was caused by traffic controllers in Somalia. It blamed air traffic controllers in Mogadishu, Somalia, for “regularly” making “mistakes like these.”
There were reports sometime last month that a similar incident was about to happen over Somali airspace. Emirates and Ethiopian Airlines planes were involved in the incident. However, Ethiopian Airlines did not confirm it.
Furthermore, the statement said such mistakes “are a threat to the safety of international flights.”
“We share with international agencies and the whole world that the stubbornness and lack of knowledge seen in the Mogadishu Tower is a threat to the safety of the air,” Somaliland Civil Aviation and Airports Authority cautioned.
As of now, the government of Somalia has not responded to allegations from Somaliland about the air traffic incident and Ethiopian Airlines has not remarked about the latest incident.
MG/abj/APA