Two PIA planes narrowly escape mid-air disaster over Iranian airspace: report

A Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) plane landing at an airport. — AFP/file

TEHRAN: Two Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) planes narrowly escaped mid-air disaster on Sunday when they came dangerously close to each other over Iranian territory. Both the planes were on the same route and altitude due to alleged negligence of the Iranian Air Traffic Control (ATC), which is said to have cleared the same altitude for both of the PIA planes, Daily Dawn reported. According to details, a PIA Boeing 777 was en route from Islamabad to Dubai while the airline’s other aircraft Airbus A320 was heading from Doha to Peshawar when they came dangerously close to each other over the Iranian airspace near the UAE. Sensing the danger, the Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) of the planes got activated and one of the aircraft was asked to ascend and the other descended as per standard practice, the publication reported. TCAS is installed on all the planes and automatically guides the plane by communicating with the TCAS of other aircraft. A PIA spokesperson confirmed the incident to the newspaper and said: “PIA is writing to Iranian air traffic control (ATC) to investigate as the Iranian ATC instructed the plane, but it was wrong.” Giving details, the spokesperson said that PIA flight PK-211, a Boeing 777 from Islamabad to Dubai, was maintaining a 35,000-foot altitude when it came close to Peshawar-bound flight PK-268 of Airbus A320 from Doha. PK-268 flight was flying at an altitude of 36,000 feet and was cleared to descend to 20,000 feet, he said, adding that the descent would have come in the flight path of PIA flight of Boeing 777 PK-211, the spokesman added. Meanwhile, the spokesperson added that the aircraft’s TCAS corrected the course for both planes and automatically guided them.

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