“Hostile Elements” in Somalia ATC: El Al 787 Ignores Direction

Last Saturday, “hostile elements” accessed Somalia ATC and attempted to redirect an El Al Boeing 787 flying from Phuket to Tel Aviv.

Incident: “Hostile Elements” in Somalia ATC: El Al 787 Ignores Direction…

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El Al flight LY88 is a routine scheduled flight between Phuket and Tel Aviv, with the affected rotation being operated by 4X-EDJ.

As per data from Planespotters.net, 4X-EDJ is a 4.9 year old Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner that was delivered to the Israeli carrier back in April 2019.

Of the 787-9 variant, the airline has 12 of them in the fleet, of which 11 are in active service and one is parked, holding an average age of 5.5 years.

El Al flight LY88 departed from Phuket at 2330 local time on February 17 and proceeded westbound in the direction of Africa first before heading north to Phuket.

As per reporting from The Aviation Herald, when the aircraft entered Somalia airspace, the crew received instructions to deviate from it’s filed flight plan.

It is understood that the crew ignored the message and switched to a different method of communication due to concerns about security and safety.

Following that, the crew continued on to Tel Aviv, where the aircraft landed safely at 0458 local time the next morning.

El Al reported that on the Boeing 787 operating the flight from Phuket to Tel Aviv that “hostile elements” tried to take over communication with the aircraft, and is apparently the second time this has happened in the area.

Crew have been made aware of incidents like this when operating the route, and have been trained accordingly within this.

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