African Express EMB-120 humanitarian flight shot down in Somalia

ChasenSFO

ChasenSFO

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On 4 May, an African Express Airways Embraer E-120 Brasilia (Kenyan registered as 5Y-AXO) was operating a domestic flight between Mogadishu and Baidoa, Somalia. During the flight – above Bardale – the aircraft was shot down, allegedly by a rocket missile.

Two pilots and four passengers who were in the aircraft all died. The crash was confirmed by Somali Minister for Transport Hassan Hussein Mohamed who said two of the passengers who perished in the crash are Somalis.

The aircraft was chartered by an NGO and was transporting medical supplies and mosquito nets.
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African Express Airways Embraer E-120 shot down by rocket missile over Somalia - Aviation24.be


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Ex-N267CA at Comair, some of you may have flown this one. Initial reports were of an RPG, but now speculation on some African news outlets is it was not militia but Ethiopian troops in the region, who allegedly looted the aircraft for supplies after shooting it down.

Those poor souls. If it was indeed Ethiopian military and not a terror group, I wonder what possible motivation there could be. They are in the region to fight the very terrorists that were first accused of the shoot down.

Some more unverified info in the comment thread here:

Despite the instability in the region, this is the first commercial aircraft I've read about being shot down in Somalia, though there has been an attempted bombing of an A321 years ago(only the terrorist died in that one).
 
Not a shoot down but a A310 deadsticked into a field in Somali a few years ago, kind of a lesson in negligence and operational pressure.

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deadstick said:
It’d still at altitude 40 miles from Baidoa. No RPG could tag that.
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One news outlet said the plane was at 3,000 feet. That seems pretty damn low for 40 miles out, but, airlines in that part of the world often navigate with dashboard GPS units and there is little radar coverage outside the busiest airports so...who knows.

I hadn't heard of that A310 incident, fascinating...
 
ChasenSFO said:
One news outlet said the plane was at 3,000 feet. That seems pretty damn low for 40 miles out, but, airlines in that part of the world often navigate with dashboard GPS units and there is little radar coverage outside the busiest airports so...who knows.

I hadn't heard of that A310 incident, fascinating...
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Here I’ve seen enough FOs want to descend to 3000’ and configure 40nm out in the CRJ that it didn’t even raise an eyebrow.
 
ChasenSFO said:
One news outlet said the plane was at 3,000 feet. That seems pretty damn low for 40 miles out, but, airlines in that part of the world often navigate with dashboard GPS units and there is little radar coverage outside the busiest airports so...who knows.

I hadn't heard of that A310 incident, fascinating...
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While it's theoretically not impossible, 3000' is way beyond the effective range of any RPG, let alone fired upward at a moving target. A hit would be total fluke. An RPG-7 would self destruct before it got that high.. 3000' would be in range for an old Soviet MANPAD of the type used by the Ethiopian military, while they'd be well clear of those at 12,000' (If at 40 miles out).
 
NickH said:
While it's theoretically not impossible, 3000' is way beyond the effective range of any RPG, let alone fired upward at a moving target. A hit would be total fluke. An RPG-7 would self destruct before it got that high.. 3000' would be in range for an old Soviet MANPAD of the type used by the Ethiopian military, while they'd be well clear of those at 12,000' (If at 40 miles out).
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I was thinking SA-7.
 
Not fun getting shot at with those things. They aren’t SA-2/5/10 flying telephone poles or anything, but they’re still enough to get your attention.
 
MikeD said:
Not fun getting shot at with those things. They aren’t SA-2/5/10 flying telephone poles or anything, but they’re still enough to get your attention.
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Without a missile warning system, it doesn’t matter. It’ll still leave you wondering “wtf just happened?!?”
 
deadstick said:
Without a missile warning system, it doesn’t matter. It’ll still leave you wondering “wtf just happened?!?”
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Mine happened in the days before having IR MWS, which is standard these days. All the shots were unobserved from low 6, until they went flying past the cockpit of my jet. Wingman was at least nice enough to say “lead, you’re being shot at.....”. Thanks for telling me something I already know....:)
 
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