An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 777 freighter was forced to land at Batam's Hang Nadim International airport on 14 January, after the aircraft was found to have entered Indonesian airspace without obtaining overflight clearance.
In a statement, the Indonesian armed forces says the freighter, registered ET-AVN, was operating a flight from Addis Ababa to Hong Kong when it entered Indonesian airspace "illegally".
"From the air-to-air communication made, it was found that the Ethiopian Airlines cargo aircraft did not have an overflight clearance [to overfly Indonesia], and was forced to land at the nearest airport, which is Batam's Hang Nadim at 09:33 hours local time," the statement adds.
After the incident, Ethiopian issued a statement explaining that the aircraft was operating as flight ET3728 on a non-scheduled service from Addis Ababa to Singapore.
"The subject freighter aircraft was flying to drop an urgent aircraft engine in Singapore for maintenance and was crossing the Indonesian airspace in accordance with the ICAO Chicago Convention Article 5, by which non-scheduled flight can overfly the air space of a friendly country without prior permission," the airline explains.
"However, the authorities may require the aircraft to make a landing. Ethiopian Airlines has explained to the Indonesian authorities on the details of the flight, and the flying crew are resting in a hotel before they continue their flight."
Flight Fleets Analyzer shows that ET-AVN (MSN65397) is owned and managed by Ethiopian, and was delivered new to the airline on 30 August 2018.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
