[Regnum] Unidentified people tried to intercept control of the communications system of the Israeli El Al airliner flying over Somalia. This was reported on February 18 by radio station Kan.
The El Al airline plane was flying from Phuket in Thailand to Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. While flying in Somalia over an area believed to be under Houthi control,
| ...Houthis in Somalia? |
The pilots suspected that they were trying to divert the plane from its destination when they switched to alternative means of communication and checked information with other air traffic controllers.
Over the past week, the same thing has happened at least twice with other Israeli airlines flying to Thailand.
El Al said Somalia's aviation authorities had recently warned of communications disruptions, so pilots were using alternative means of communication.
As Regnum reported, on February 17, the military representative of the Yemeni Houthi movement Ansar Allah, Yahya Saria, said that a missile attack had been carried out on the British oil tanker Pollux in the Red Sea.
| The Jerusalem Post adds: |
...Republic of Somaliland is an unrecognised sovereign state in the Horn of Africa, recognised internationally as a de jure part of Somalia. It is located in the southern coast of the Gulf of Aden with approximately 5.7 million residents as of 2021. The capital and largest city is Hargeisa. The government regards itself as the successor state to British Somaliland, which united from 1960 to 1991 with the Trust Territory of Somaliland (the former Italian Somaliland) to form the Somali Republic. Under the Siad Barre regime, Somalia destroyed ninety percent of Hargeisa. Per international law, once you're in, you gotta stay in, no matter how bad it smells...., which recently signed an agreement with Æthiopia, is responsible for the attempted attack.
| To summarize: Houthis are infesting Somaliland along with Al Shabaab and ISIS. Interesting times, to be sure. |
During the incident, instructions were given to the crew that were different from their set route, raising concerns that someone was trying to damage the plane or lead it to dangerous areas, maybe even to conduct a kidnapping.
The crew disobeyed the instructions and quickly switched to alternative means of communication while also checking the data against other air traffic controllers and realizing that they were being misled.
EL AL: THE DISRUPTION DID NOT AFFECT THE NORMAL COURSE OF THE FLIGHT
A source in El Al told Walla that "in Somalia, there have been communication interruptions all week, not only for El Al planes,
| Whew! That’s a comforting change... |
The source told Walla that the hostile elements contacted El Al pilots twice: Once on the flight between Phuket and Ben-Gurion and once on a flight to Bangkok.
"Our pilots are instructed on how to deal with this incident, such as the problematic frequency, and how to handle the flight professionally when it happens," explained the source.
A statement at El Al stressed that "the disturbances are not aimed at El Al planes and that this is not a security incident. The disruption did not affect the normal course of the flight thanks to the professionalism of the pilots who used the alternative means of communication and allowed the flight to continue on the planned route."