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