By Prof. Dr. Wolfgang H. Thome
The US Federal Aviation Administration, in short FAA, has in their latest advisories and prohibition notices for US registered aircraft included Kenya as a potentially hostile region while Ethiopia is on the full prohibition list, after Somalia was already for a while on their no go board.
All of Ukraine was added yesterday following the shot-down of a Malaysian B777-200 with 298 on board by a surface to air missile from rebel held territory.
The following details were extracted from the latest FAA notice dated 18th of July and reads as follows:
ETHIOPIA
Flight operations are prohibited in Ethiopian airspace north of 12 degrees latitude. The FAA also warns that Ethiopian forces may fire upon aircraft crossing into Ethiopian airspace from northeastern Kenya.View document »
KENYA
The advisory states that “recent, credible information indicates a potential near-term terrorist attack against U.S. and Western interests in Kenya,” warning against attacks using MANPADS. View document »
End quote
It could not be established if the inclusion of Kenya was based on the fact that the country is bordering Somalia or for other reasons of a more domestic nature. It should be recalled that there was an attempt to shoot down an Israeli tourist charter aircraft on the 28th of November 2002 with two shoulder fired SAM’s while taking off from Mombasa’s international airport when at the same time an Israeli owned hotel in Kikambala was subjected to a suicide bombing. No such attempts were reported however since and airport perimeter security has been significantly improved and strengthened since then at both Mombasa and the country’s main airport in Nairobi.
In view of the advanced hour when filing this report no comments from aviation sources or government officials could be obtained.
Source: eTN Africa
