Another mid-air collision averted..

[piafan]

Another mid-air collision averted

By Ghulam Haider

LAHORE: A Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) plane and an Aero Asia aircraft avoided mid-air collision by the difference of a few seconds on July 29 at 9:30pm, it is learnt.

Aero Asia's Karachi-Lahore flight (No 120) with 100 passengers and cabin crew and PIA's Lahore-Sharjah flight (PK-295) with 125 passengers and crew avoided the collision on Lahore-Karachi route about 50 kilometres south of Lahore, mainly due to timely warning by the Air Traffic Control Tower (ATCT), sources said.

The ATCT, on finding both the jets moving towards each other, instructed the pilot of the Aero Asia plane to descend on 23,000 feet and instructed the pilot of the PIA to attain the height of 22,000 feet. Both the pilots acknowledged the instructions and started moving towards their respective directions to attain the standard separation.

The PIA plane, however, started climbing above the limit of 22,000 feet. The separation distance between both the planes was reduced to mere 400 feet when someone at the Air Traffic Control Tower started shouting at the PIA pilot to "Stop, Stop, Descend, Descend".

The sources said the 400 feet separation distance meant that both the aircraft could have collided within four to five seconds, causing irreparable loss of human lives. About two weeks ago a PIA plane and an aircraft of a local airline also came close to a mid-air collision over Nawabshah. One of the pilots ignored the ATCT instructions. The inquiry into this incident is yet to be finalised.

Three months back, a PIA plane with Federal Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad aboard and Air Blue jetliner also came close to a collision over Rahimyar Khan. One of the pilots did not follow the ATCT instructions. One week after this incident, another PIA plane avoided a mid-air collision with the aircraft of a local airline.

The spokeswoman for the PIA, Samina Pervaiz, when contacted said such an incident might have occurred. However, she said she was not able to offer any comments as she was out of Karachi and would be in the position to comment only after reaching Karachi on Monday.

[atmalik]

and all this when we are trying to get more foreign airlines to come to Pakistan. And as already discussed, i wonder whos fault is it ultimately, the ATC's or the pilots invovled. Wish thier is an open and quick inquiry and the people at fault are publically repraminded and punished.

[AP-BGL]

What !!! This time PIA with Aero Asia. Why all these things are happening? I think they just want to remind us the accient of trains near Ghotki ...