The Somali government has banned four types of airplanes from flying in its airspace.
The Somali Civil Aviation Authority (SCAA) says the AN-24, AN-26, AN-32 and AN-12 models will not be allowed to operate in Somali airspace after March 15 citing safety reasons.According to officials, there have been no accidents involving the banned planes but there have been ‘near misses’.
A statement from the SCAA had earlier on given airline operators until February 28 to cease flights but late moved the deadline date to March 15.
Somalia took full control of its airspace back in 2017 from the United Nations International Civil Aviation Organization who had managed it since the early 1990s Somali civil war.Ban comes days after an Ethiopian plane en route to Nairobi crashed with 157 people on board.
Kenya suffered the biggest loss after 32 Kenyans died in the early morning flight from Bole International Airport to Nairobi.
The flight, which departed from Addis Ababa on Sunday at 8.38am, and was expected at the JKIA at 10.15am, went down six minutes later at Bishoftu, about 50km southeast of the Ethiopia’s capital, killing all on board.
