ESAT News

The Ethiopian Defense Force has admitted that Ethiopian Air Force pilots have defected to Eritrea flying a helicopter while ESAT’s Air Force sources have said that the Ethiopian Air Force had lately stopped the search for the two pilots and a technician, who disappeared since Friday. The Ethiopian Defense said in a statement that was read on Ethiopian state television that the “traitor” pilot of the helicopter forced the assistant and the technician to fly to Eritrea.

ESAT learned that the search for the defecting pilots stopped after the Air Force confirmed that the pilots had intended to defect and had safely landed in an “unspecified place”.

ESAT broke the News on Saturday that the defecting pilots were two however; new reports from the Ethiopian Air Force indicate that the missing crew were three namely Captain Samuel Ghidey, Lieutenant Bililign Mekonen and technician Tesagbirhan Gidey.

ESAT’s efforts to speak to Brigadier Mashu Hagos, Deputy Head of the Ethiopian Air Force were unsuccessful; however, ESAT attempted to speak with Colonel Abebe Teka, who is believed to be the shadow leader of the Air Force and Deployments. When informed that we were calling him from ESAT, Colonel Abebe asked “did they (the defecting pilots) phone you?” ESAT’s journalist tried to explain that we were calling him after receiving information about their defection, the Colonel shouted “shut up” and hanged the phone up.

ESAT will continue updating about the ongoing issue.