Ethiopia’s Ambassador to the UK Points Out BBC’s Factually Inaccurate Comments On Ethiopian Aircraft Incident

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Government of Ethiopia

Ethiopia’s ambassador to the UK on Tuesday (February 17) wrote to the Director General of the BBC to correct what he termed the “damaging and factually incorrect statement made by Mr. Frank Gardner (a BBC security correspondent)” regarding security issues at Addis Ababa’s Bole International Airport.

The security correspondent, while commenting on the recent Ethiopian Airlines incident in which a co-pilot had rerouted a plane to land at Geneva, had remarked that security was loose at Bole Airport. Ambassador Berhanu Kebede pointed out that Mr. Gardener’s statement was factually inaccurate. The Airport, he noted, has “a high reputation for its exceptional security provisions amongst international flight-safety regulatory bodies”.

The Ambassador added that Bole International Airport was “periodically audited and at no time has it been found in breach of the international standards that world-leading airport service providers are required to meet”. The Ambassador emphasized that it was absurd to relate the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 702 incident, which involved a member of the flight crew, to the issue of airport security arrangements.

The incident which involved no threatening activity, no weaponry, and no violence, had nothing to do with any airport security details. It could not, the Ambassador said, be viewed “as a consequence of breach of security at Addis Ababa Airport.” It was, in fact, quite clearly, an “isolated case of failure of responsibility on the part of a single crew member who was in charge of the aircraft”. The Ambassador’s letter urged the BBC to balance “Mr. Gardner’s prejudicial testament by voices better qualified to render expert opinion on such matters.