Two aircraft managed to avoid a mid-air collision due to the negligence of air traffic controllers at the Jinnah International Airport in Karachi.
Sources revealed that both the airplanes tried to land simultaneously from opposite directions on the runways of the airport, which could have led them to crash into each other.
They added that “the pilots of the planes acted wisely and avoided the imminent collision”.
The Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA) is cognizant of the incident and initiated an investigation.
Its spokesperson stated, “We have initiated the probe and action will be taken against whoever is found guilty”.
Note that all airplanes are equipped with a technology called the Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) that automatically guides them by communicating with the other plane’s TCAS.
A similar incident occurred on 26 July when two Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) airplanes closely missed a mid-air crash while flying on the same air route and altitude over Iranian territory near UAE airspace.
The incident was caused by the purported negligence of the Iranian Air Traffic Control (ATC) which had cleared the same altitude for both the airplanes, positioning them in close proximity to each other.
One of them, a Boeing 777, was flying from Islamabad to Dubai, while the other, an Airbus A320, was headed from Doha to Peshawar, as per the sources. When they were found to be dangerously close to each other, one was instructed to ascend and the other was told to descend in accordance with the standard practice.
PIA’s spokesperson detailed that the descent of one of the Airbus A320 would have intersected the flight path of the Boeing 777 but its TCAS had prevented the crash by correcting the course for them both and guiding them.
