Mustafa Mohamed Moalim (, ) (25 March 1943 – 27 December 2009) was a prominent Somali aviator.

Early life and education

Mustafa Moalin was born in

Mogadishu Mogadishu, locally known as Xamar or Hamar, is the capital and List of cities in Somalia by population, most populous city of Somalia. The city has served as an important port connecting traders across the Indian Ocean for millennia and has ...

Somalia Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia, is the easternmost country in continental Africa. The country is located in the Horn of Africa and is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, Kenya to the southwest, th ...

to a

veterinarian A veterinarian (vet) or veterinary surgeon is a medical professional who practices veterinary medicine. They manage a wide range of health conditions and injuries in non-human animals. Along with this, veterinarians also play a role in animal r ...

father and a housewife mother. His one older brother Abdulkadir Mohamed Moalim became a well known veterinarian. Because of his father’s constant move to different regions, he and his brother grew up in different cities in Somalia including Mogadishu,

Baidoa Baidoa (, Somali (Af-Maxaa): , ) is the largest city of the South West State of Somalia. Between 2002 and 2014, Baidoa was the capital of the South West State. In 2014, the capital was changed to Barawa. Overview Baydhabo is the main hub of ...

Afgooye Afgooye (, , ) is a town in the southeastern Somalia Lower Shebelle (Shabellaha Hoose) region of Somalia. It is the center of the Afgooye District. Afgooye is the third largest city of Southwest State. Afgooye is one of the oldest towns on the ...

and

Beledweyne Beledweyne (, ) is a city in central Somalia. Beledweyne District is the capital city of the Hiran region. The city is situated in the Shebelle Valley riverine near the Ethiopian border, 210 miles (345 km) north of Mogadishu. Beledweyne ...

. According to a cousin and some colleagues, Mustafa used to draw airplanes during his childhood, and young Mustafa becoming interested in flying and wanting to be a pilot. After earning high marks in his elementary school in

, at the age of 11, he was chosen to attend Italian schools including the ''Liceo Dinesa'' in Mogadishu. In 1959, Mustafa graduated at the top of his class from the ''Collegio Magistrale''. Moalin would later earn a Master of Military Arts and Science degree from Kyiv, Ukraine, the Soviet Union Air Force Academies. Mustafa held Laureate of Jurisprudence from the Somali National University Faculty of Law and a Diploma of Linguistics from Italian Linguistics Academy. He was a

polyglot Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. When the languages are just two, it is usually called bilingualism. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolin ...

who specialized in Arabic, English, French, German, Italian and Russian languages.

Military career

At age 17, in newly independent Somalia, Mustafa volunteered and was chosen to become a

fighter pilot A fighter pilot or combat pilot is a Military aviation, military aviator trained to engage in air-to-air combat, Air-to-ground weaponry, air-to-ground combat and sometimes Electronic-warfare aircraft, electronic warfare while in the cockpit of ...

. He trained first at

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

with

Egyptian Air Force The Egyptian Air Force (EAF) () is the aviation branch of the Egyptian Armed Forces that is responsible for all airborne defence missions and operates all military aircraft, including those used in support of the Egyptian Army, Egyptian Navy ...

, where he made his first solo flight in a military aircraft. Sometime in 1961 he attended the Soviet air force pilot training school in Moscow where he was trained on the

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 (; USAF/DoD designation: Type 14; NATO reporting name: Fagot) is a jet fighter aircraft developed by Mikoyan-Gurevich for the Soviet Union. The MiG-15 was one of the first successful jet fighters to incorporate s ...

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 (; NATO reporting name: Fresco) is a high-subsonic fighter aircraft produced in the Soviet Union from 1952 and was operated by air forces internationally. The MiG-17 was license-built in China as the Shenyang J-5 and ...

. As a young officer, Mustafa served as a fighter pilot and was later appointed as fighter air squadron commander and flight training officer. In 1966 he trained at the ''Scuola AVvanzato Base Elica'' in

Latina, Italy Latina () is the capital of the province of Latina, in the Lazio region, in Central Italy. As of 2024, the city has 127,486 inhabitants and is the second-largest city of the region, after the national capital Rome.It is one of the youngest citie ...

, eventually becoming a licensed flight instructor for military transport aircraft such as the C-45 Expeditor and

C-47 Skytrain The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota ( RAF designation) is a military transport aircraft developed from the civilian Douglas DC-3 airliner. It was used extensively by the Allies during World War II. During the war the C-47 was used for troo ...

or Dakota (Douglas DC-3). In 1969 he was trained as pilot and flight instructor for a jet bomber

Ilyushin Il-28 The Ilyushin Il-28 (; NATO reporting name: Beagle) is a jet bomber of the immediate postwar period that was originally manufactured for the Soviet Air Forces. It was the Soviet Union's first such aircraft to enter large-scale production. It was ...

while he attended and graduated from Cosmonaut Academy in

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

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in the former

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. Upon returning to Somalia in 1973-74, he was promoted commander of the Balidoogle Air Force base, where he built Somalia's first Air Force School and became the first Chief of the Somali Air Force School. In 1975, Mustafa earned a Master of Military Arts and Science diploma from the Cosmonaut Academy in Kyiv, Ukraine in the former

. During the Somali-Ethiopian conflict in 1977-78, his military career reached its zenith when he became Chief of Somali Air Force Operations and Commander of Air Force for Northwestern Somali Regions, Air Force bases in

Hargeisa Hargeisa ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Somaliland, a ''List of states with limited recognition, de facto'' sovereign state in the Horn of Africa, still considered internationally to be part of Somalia. It is also th ...

and

Berbera Berbera (; , ) is the capital of the Sahil, Somaliland, Sahil region of Somaliland and is the main sea port of the country, located approximately 160 km from the national capital, Hargeisa. Berbera is a coastal city and was the former capital of t ...

and was credited to have led the establishment of Somali’s air superiority during the war. In Somali-Ethiopian conflict Mustafa is also credited to have shot down two enemy aircraft over Ogadenia territory and carrying out numerous strategic long distance bombing. In November 1978 Mustafa became the Air Force Academy's commander and a year later with request from the office of the presidency he was transferred and employed by Somali Airlines where he taught different courses and supervised many Pilots.

Commercial pilot

In 1979 Mustafa Mohamed Moalin was employed at Somali Airlines where he oversaw the growth of the Somali Airlines into an international airline. He help bring first commercial jet planes

Boeing 707 The Boeing 707 is an early American long-range Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliner, the first jetliner developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Developed from the Boeing 367-80 prototype, the initial first flew on Decembe ...

to Somali Airlines serving as Captain pilot and flight instructor after studying at American Air Academy in

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, US. In 1987, he became a licensed

flight instructor A flight instructor is a person who teaches others to operate aircraft. Specific privileges granted to holders of a flight instructor qualification vary from country to country, but very generally, a flight instructor serves to enhance or evaluate ...

Airbus A310 The Airbus A310 is a wide-body aircraft, Aircraft design process, designed and manufactured by Airbus Industrie GIE, then a consortium of European aerospace manufacturers. Airbus had identified a demand for an aircraft smaller than the Airbus ...

after studying at Airbus training center in

Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...

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. In total, he had 33 years and more than 27,000 hours of flying experience. He served as an airline pilot instructor and a national technical member. His flight experience destinations ranged across

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

and

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

Personal life

Mustafa Mohamed Moalin is married to Khadija Abdulkhadir Mohamed, a former

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

and

Economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

instructor and expert in

Pedagogy Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political, and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken ...

, with whom he has six sons and two daughters (Kamaludin, Zahra, Nuradin, Shamsudin, Rahma, Mohamed, Sakhawadin and Fakhrudin). He also had 28 grandchildren. Mustafa always refused to participate in any form of the

Somali civil war The Somali Civil War (; ) is an List of ongoing armed conflicts, ongoing civil war that is taking place in Somalia. It grew out of resistance to the military junta which was led by Siad Barre during the 1980s. From 1988 to 1990, the Somali Armed ...

by maintaining a neutral ground and staying away from clan politics. He loved his country and people and spent his last moments in exile in Moorhead,

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

, US, with his wife, children, grandchildren and other extended family members. Mustafa died on December 27, 2009, and was buried in Fargo Islamic Cemetery in

Fargo, North Dakota Fargo is the List of cities in North Dakota, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Dakota and the county seat of Cass County, North Dakota, Cass County. The population was 125,990 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, which was e ...

Notes and references

Taariikh nololeedka G/Sare Duuliye sare Mustafa Mohamed Macallim
''Hiiraan'', December 2009

External links