His deputy was a veteran EPLF fighter, Major General Wedi Kahsay until he was sent to the northern zone as a commander of a regiment in the army.

Eventually, the air force was taken over by Major General Teklay Habteselasie, who is also the commander of the Sawa military training camp.

In 2012 two high-ranking officers flew the air force's only luxury airplane out of the country to Saudi Arabia and sought asylum.

However this agreement ended since it was in violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1907 barring military technical assistance to Eritrea.

It is believed that Eritrea's fleet of Russian fighter aircraft is suffering from a chronic lack of maintenance and as a result are rarely flown.