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Published yesterday at 9:48 p.m., updated yesterday at 9:48 p.m.
A Qatar Airways Boeing 787 almost collided with an Ethiopian Airlines Airbus A350-900 over the Gulf of Aden. (Illustrative photo) Robert Buchel / Robert – stock.adobe.com
Somaliland's Civil Aviation Authority accuses its Somali counterpart of making a mistake that led to this incident, which could have caused the deaths of hundreds of people.
Hundreds of travelers came close to death without realizing it. On Saturday, February 24, an Ethiopian Airlines Airbus A350-900 narrowly avoided a complete collision while flying between Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Sky with a Qatar Airways Boeing 787 on the way from Doha to Entebbe in Uganda.
At 12:32 p.m. local time, the Qatar Airways flight, “flying at a constant altitude (38,000 feet), was incorrectly instructed to climb to 40,000 feet by air traffic controllers in Mogadishu (in Somalia, editor's note).” says the Civilian Aviation of Somaliland, a state bordering Somalia, in a press release. At this point, the Ethiopian A350 was traveling in the opposite direction at an altitude of 39,000 feet.
This error resulted in the two aircraft being at almost the same altitude over the Gulf of Aden, creating an extremely dangerous situation in the air. Fortunately, the collision warning systems TCAS (Traffic Collision Avoidance System) of both aircraft worked properly and signaled the dangerous proximity between the two aircraft.
Using TCAS, the pilots were able to coordinate vertical avoidance maneuvers, one ascending and the other descending, avoiding an imminent collision. Without these warnings, a catastrophe could have occurred. Somali Civil Aviation launched an investigation into this incident to clarify the exact circumstances.
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Strained relationships
This incident underscores the stormy relations between Somalia and its neighbor Somaliland, a separatist region of this Horn of Africa state and a self-proclaimed republic since 1991 that is not internationally recognized. In the sky, the two states are fighting over the management of the region's airspace. In 2019, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) transferred management of Somali airspace to Somali authorities. In its press release published on Saturday, Somali civil aviation accused its Somali counterpart of making a mistake. On the other hand, Somalia has already accused Somaliland of “misdirecting the planes” in the past.
In Somalia we are trying to calm the population. “The Somali Civil Aviation Agency (SCAA) assures all Somali citizens and airlines using Somali flights that it fully controls the safety of Somali aircraft. “There is no uncertainty and security threat in the Somali skies,” the authority wrote on Facebook on Saturday after the near miss.
This narrowly avoided collision occurred several months after a similar incident in the United States. Last November, an American Airlines plane and a Tradewind Aviation plane nearly crashed while landing at New York's JFK Airport at the same time. Such incidents would not be so rare on the Atlantic. Last summer, a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) report published by the New York Times said that 46 aircraft accidents were narrowly avoided in the United States in July 2023 alone. Proof that the issue is being taken seriously in the world In the land of Uncle Sam, US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg admitted to USA Today in March 2023 that he was “concerned” and assured that his administration was trying to “take a closer look and to conduct a deeper analysis to find out what is “event” .