Deeply concerning incident at Africa’s largest airline — Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 #ET343 was still at cruising altitude of 37,000ft by the time it reached destination Addis Ababa

Why hadn’t it started to descend for landing? Both pilots were asleep. avherald.com/h?article=4fd1… Air traffic controllers tried to contact the pilots numerous times without success

After overflying the runway (still at cruising altitude), the autopilot disconnected - and this chime alert woke the pilots up — who then initiated a descent and eventually made a safe landing.

Aviation & Afghanistan - one year on: airspace remains off-limits to almost all other nations/airlines ✈️🚫deemed too risky & designated as “uncontrolled”

However, air traffic control is functional - with Afghan air traffic controllers trained by Qatar, Uzbekistan and Turkey. Kabul Airport, as well as Kandahar and Herat airports, are managed by a United Arab Emirates-based consortium, after a deal was signed with the Taliban in May 2022.

Afghanistan's largest private airline, Kam Air has managed to continue to operate since the Taliban takeover

Breaking: Russia ban all UK airlines from using its airspace, including for overflight ✈️⛔️ — a retaliation that’ll impact UK-Asia flights. #Ukraine UK airlines rely on Russian airspace for flights to the Far East, including South Korea, Japan, and China. Image below shows the usual route, via Russian airspace

Costly rerouting & extra flight times ahead for airlines as aircraft will now track south, across the Middle East.

Ukraine: Airspace over Ukraine-Russia border now restricted, essentially a no-go zone for commercial aviation. ⛔️ Multiple Ukrainian airports in the East have suspended all operations tonight, including #Kharkiv. Multiple airlines, including European carriers, have tonight been informed by aviation risk management agencies that Ukraine 🇺🇦 - as a whole - is now considered a “Do Not Fly” ⛔️ area on the basis of “extreme tension and developments on Feb 23”

Breaking: European Union 🇪🇺 has agreed to reopen its borders to ALL travellers who are fully vaccinated (with a vaccine certified in EU). Here’s the initial announcement ✅ ✈️ #COVID19 👇🏽 More: The new travel policy for fully-vaccinated travellers to EU could go into effect as early as next week, per European officials ✈️🇪🇺

EU has confirmed it will accept travellers who have full immunization from: Pfizer, Moderna, J&J, AstraZeneca and Sinopharm vaccines 💉

England + intl travel👇🏽

🟩 Test before/after travel to England, no quarantine: 12 countries: Portugal, Gibraltar & others

🟨 Tests before/after travel + home quarantine. Spain, France & others

🟥 Travel ban, hotel quarantine for Brits. Turkey, UAE, Maldives, S America & others As expected, majority of ‘Green List’ countries are countries banning travellers 🟩⛔️

Portugal, Israel, Gibraltar, Iceland, Faroe Islands, Brunei, Falklands, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore. Ascension Islands, Tristan da Cunha, St Helena, South Georgia, South Sandwich Islands

TODAY: UK government will reveal green/amber/red ✈️🚦list for all international travel to UK, from 17 May. A thread 👇🏽

🟩 Green: test before/after travel to UK, no quarantine
🟨 Amber: tests before/after, home quarantine
🟥 Red: ban on visitors, £1750 hotel quarantine for Brits • Remember: UK’s upcoming green/amber/red list ✈️🚦does *NOT* determine where Brits can travel to.

Instead, it determines what measures/testing/quarantine passengers face (including Brits, tourists, business travellers, etc) will face when they travel FROM abroad TO the UK.

Tomorrow: UK mandatory hotel quarantine for so-called ‘red list’ arrivals begins ✈️

That’s 55 days since S African #COVID19 variant was detected in UK ⏳

1 year since “global health emergency” declared 🗓⚠️

(25+ million already arrived: no tests/screening for any passengers) There are no direct passenger flights from “red list” nations — but people are still arriving via transit airports 🔀

UK Border Force will need to check passport data, interview, & locator form to determine who’s been where. They’ve already warned this will not happen for all.

UK government is set announce mandatory hotel quarantine for passenger arrivals, one whole year into this #COVID19 crisis.

During this next phase, measures (testing, screening) must *finally* be established so that UK can manage inbound/outbound passenger flow for the long term. A year ago, I held several discussions with foreign governments, most concluded: coexistence is key. Air travel + #COVID19 can coexist if measures are in place

What UK aviation now needs 👇🏽

• Financial package to ensure there’s an aviation sector on the other side of this.

Breaking: A passenger Boeing 737 is missing after losing contact with Indonesian authorities shortly after take off from Jakarta airport.

Sriwijaya Air flight #SJ182 is a 737-500 (classic narrow body airline jet) — the aircraft in question is 26 years old. More to follow. Sriwijaya Air is Indonesia’s third largest airline, listed as a “Category 1” airline, the country’s highest safety rating

@flightradar24’s ADS-B data from #SJ182 shows the aircraft losing “more than 10,000 feet of altitude in less than 1 minute” less than 5 mins after departure

Breaking: UK will finally require ALL passengers travelling to UK to present a negative #COVID19 result (obtained 72 hrs before travel) in order to be permitted to depart to UK ✈️⚠️

Almost 1 year into the crisis, this is an easy mandate that shifts testing responsibility abroad. While UK will continue its – no testing on arrival, no checks & no health screening for any passengers – position, the new “must test before you travel to UK” means government is finally following the long-list of countries who adopted this testing mandate multiple months ago ✈️

Breaking: Saudi Arabia officially updates its NOTAMs to remove its airspace ban on Qatar, which lasted 3.5 years — a significant moment in the Middle East. #Qatar Latest: Qatar Airways confirm the first commercial flight to overfly Saudi Arabia (for the first time in 3.5 years) will be QR1365 from Doha to Johannesburg, now en-route. #Qatar

Breaking: Saudi Arabia agree to open its airspace to Qatar (as well as its land and sea borders) - tonight - following the #GulfCrisis blockade that started back in 2017. Reminder: In June 2017, Saudi, UAE, Bahrain & Egypt imposed airspace bans on Qatari jets (as part of the wider blockade) — a violation of their signed ICAO airspace treaties.

Last year, ICJ - highest court in world - ruled in favour of Qatar in Gulf airspace blockade.

Breaking: Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737 jet has crashed in Tehran, Iran shortly after take off according to Iranian state media The aircraft involved is confirmed to be a Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737-800 (not to be confused with a 737 MAX — these are still grounded, worldwide) crashed several minutes after takeoff from Imam Khomeini Airport in Tehran #PS752

Breaking: British Airways has suspended ALL flights to Cairo, Egypt for seven days "as a precaution to allow for further assessment" British Airways are citing “security reasons” for the immediate suspension of all Cairo, Egypt flights — unclear if it is in relation to tensions in nearby Gulf.

Breaking: Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX has reportedly been involved in a fatal incident, en route from Addis Ababa to Nairobi. #ET302 Statement from PM

https://twitter.com/pmethiopia/status/1104650609951719427?s=21