SOMALIA’s LOCAL FLIGHTS - (THE FLYING COFFIN).

The collapse of the central government of Somalia in late 1991 had resulted immense chaos and destruction in the country especially the public institutions and infrastructure, among the worst hit sector is Somalia’s aviation system, which was once on its peak of operations in the 1980s.

In 2012, the ministry along with the Somali Civil Aviation Steering Committee set a three-year window for reconstruction of the national civil aviation capacity. After a long period of management by the Civil Aviation Caretaker Authority for Somalia (CACAS), SCAMA in conjunction with the International Civil Aviation Organization also finalized a process in 2014 to transfer control of Somalia's airspace to the new Air Space Management Centre in the capital.

On 17 December 2014, Transport Minister Qorshel announced that the Somalian government had regained control of its airspace after reaching an agreement with the International Civil Aviation Organization. The minister also indicated that Somalia's airspace would be managed from the capital Mogadishu, and additional professionals would be trained for the purpose. The news had been a very good and promising one with the current government making a quite significant change and restoration governmental institution with the support of the international community and the government of Turkey.

My experience with local flights.

I am quite used to going the country through the use of local flights and especially travelling to the key towns of Baidoa and Kismayu. As usual, I planned to travel to baidoa for work mission and I had undergone all the checking and regulation prior to my flight in which I waited for two hours the plane to be ready alongside my fellow passengers on the date. Ten minutes later, we all boarded on a bus and few meters drive main departure hall; we approach a small plane with a capacity of 12 seats and boarded. We got seated as the pilot came on board, a mid-aged man probably a Kenyan, I looked through the small window next to me wondering why the other pilot / supporting pilot couldn’t come on. Few minutes later, a voice echoed and it was the single pilot instructing us (Passengers) to tighten our seat belts for take off.

 I turned to fellow guy who was sitting on my right hand side and we starting questing why we are flying with a plane of one man pilot. An ex-professor and colleague we work together joined the conversation from a seat behind mine and he said “I do recognize this pilot, I met him some few yeas ago while he was assistant pilot by then”. Really?? I asked in a shock. The ex-professor Mr. Jaamac (not his real name) tried to convince my friend and I that such incidents happen while travelling with local flights in Somalia, after forty-minutes flight; we safely landed at Baidoa main general Shatigaduud International airport but I had being asking my self a lot of questions.

Existing structure with no quality.

The current SFG have significant regained key strategic public institutions like Ministry of Air Transportation and Civil Aviation is officially managing the operations of Aden Adde international airport yet there are some underlying factors that undermines the proper operational performance of the airport system. It is my understanding the officials of the airport and the line ministry does have a comprehensive records of all the operational planes at the airport and that every plane / flight company have acquired a fully licensed thus having the right to operate. So, what I ask my self is… In light of the flight companies / commercial planes registration, isn’t there some sort of check-list / requirement to be fulfilled before officially issuing a license like looking into issues, quality of the plane, the quality and number of the pilots per plane and their mental status. Suppose, the plane travelled with that had a single pilot and in worst case scenario something could have happened like the pilot could have some heart problem, mental disorder or any other disorder. The chances of surviving in such scenario is very low but I really don’t blame the single pilot but rather system and officials of the airport who failed to supervise the planes before take off.

I have to give credit for the Somali civil aviation officials and line ministry but if things keep on the way it is then don’t surprised to hear plane accident and yet we still make chance to correct it. The SFG is having almost all system in place but the question remains, who is going to ensure the quality of the service that the public owes to the government. 

Finally, to all those travelling with local flights in Somalia; I urge you not to travel with a plane of single pilot and for my case, If I could ever cancel my flight then I would have done it except that I had a tight schedule. Never wanted to travel with “A flying coffin”