The Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority has come forth to refute reports that wild animals were being smuggled from the country and flown to the United Arab Emirates, aboard huge cargo aircrafts.
As it happens, the TCAA seems to be intercepting claims, currently going viral on almost all social media platforms.
The reports insinuate that there is an ongoing syndicate to capture live wild animals from Loliondo, the remote Game Reserve in the Ngorongoro District of Arusha and flying the species to the Middle East.
There is an UAE hunting concession which operates a tracking block in the Loliondo area, Northern Tanzania.
However, the Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority admits that there was indeed an Airforce plane which flew between Loliondo and the Kilimanjaro International Airport (KIA) on 19 July, 2023.
“That was the last time such a foreign plane was seen in the area, contrary to the ongoing reports,” a statement from the TCAA maintained.
The Director General of the Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority, Hamza Johari explains that the UAE bound flight recorded on July 19, 2023 had a total of 18 people on board, all being Tanzanians as well as eight crew members.
The crew, all from the United Arab Emirates included four pilots, two engineers and two loadmasters, according to the report. This, according to TCAA, should therefore mean that there were no wildlife or related trophies in the fuselage.
TCAA claims that other than the passengers and crew, the aircraft carried normal baggage that got offloaded upon reaching the Kilimanjaro air terminal.
The statement says the TCAA has a real-time flight tracking system monitoring all international flights landing and taking off from International terminals such as Kilimanjaro, Julius Nyerere (Dar-es-salaam) and Abeid Amani Karume in Zanzibar.
“Loliondo is not an exit or entry point,” the statement from the Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority added.
As per international aviation regulations, aircrafts travelling on international voyage from one country to another must land or exit from the designated international terminals, in this case KIA, JNIA, Mwanza, Msalato in Dodoma and Karume.
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