For the second time in a week, a plane from the Israeli flagship airline El Al was targeted by hostile elements trying to divert the aircraft from its planned course.
The newest incident involved a plane traveling across airspace on Saturday night where the Iran-backed Houthis reside; Somalian sources insisted to the Israeli broadcaster Kann that a group in Somaliland that issued false instructions to the flight crew was responsible. Suggestions were made that the effort was an attempt to steer the plane toward dangerous areas. But the plane’s staff used other communication methods to avert any trouble, cross-referencing data with other air traffic controllers.
“In Somalia, there have been communication interruptions all week, not only for El Al planes, and the official authorities have issued instructions to all pilots that as soon as this happens with a certain frequency, not to listen to the instructions and to switch to another communication method,” an El Al source stated, adding, “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.”
The first El Al plane targeted was flying to Bangkok, KAN Reshet B reported
El Al issued a statement after the latest incident, saying 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.”
Avner Yarkoni, the former head of Israel’s Civil Aviation Authority, told Maariv, “It was a communication interference by someone who was in contact with the plane. I don’t know exactly what was said and how,” but the false controller’s “manner of speaking apparently raised suspicion among the pilots.”
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“It should be remembered that from the plane’s communication, it does not go anywhere,” he continued. “That is, the communication system guides the pilots, but if there is doubt – they don’t comply. … There are other systems where one can verify and check the communication readiness, some of them digital [ones] that are not based on verbal communication at all and are relied upon in international flights. … In addition, there is also a regional broadcast network that provides instructions, and the most important thing is that communication disruptions there are not new – not only toward El Al planes but towards all sorts of planes.”