Someone attempted to hijack El Al flight radio in Somalia’s Airspace.
Hostile elements attempted to take over the communication network of an El Al plane flying from Phuket to Ben-Gurion Airport on Saturday night and divert it from its destination, Israel’s national airline confirmed on Sunday.
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.
The Boeing 787-9 (reg. 4X-EDJ) was cruising at FL400 over Somalia.
A source in El Al told Walla that “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.”
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.”