Emirates denies report of near-miss air collision with an Ethiopian Airlines flight
Incident reportedly took place on March 24, as per social media, quoting Somaliland's CAA
Dubai: Emirates denied social media reports of a near-miss air collision event with an Ethiopian Airlines flight, the national carrier confirmed late on Wednesday.
“Emirates can confirm that there was no instance of an aircraft proximity event compromising the safety of the aircraft over the airspace and during the date and time in question," according to a statement from an Emirates spokesperson. "All Emirates aircraft are equipped with capabilities to maintain safe separation and distance during operations.”
According to a media report on X (formerly twitter), the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) of Somaliland announced that an Emirates B777, operating as flight EK722, "narrowly avoided a collision" with an Ethiopian Airlines B737 MAX, operating as flight ET690.
The media report quoting Somaliland's CAA detailed on X that the incident took place on Sunday evening, March 24. "As of now, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Federal Government of Somalia has not responded to the incident," it added.
"The incident reportedly occurred when both planes were directed to maintain an altitude of 37,000 feet by the Federal Government of Somalia's Mogadishu Control Centre. The authority explicitly accused the Mogadishu Control Centre of negligence. The Somaliland control post observed this and instructed the crew of the Ethiopian airliner to ascend to 39,000 feet."