The near miss between Pakistan International Airlines aircraft and that of Air Blue over Rahim Yar Khan on Wednesday was not the first incident of an averted catastrophe by vigilant crews but second in PIA's history. The first near miss also occurred near Rahim Yar Khan and in which an Aeroflot and PIA Boeing were involved nearly 20 years ago. The PIA flight was under the command of Captain J M Qureshi with Captain Munib Mufti as his second officer.
Captain Qureshi, now with Singapore Airlines, says it was the vigilance of his young second officer who spotted the Russian aircraft and took timely evasive action by moving out of the air corridor.
The Wednesday's PK 309, an Air Bus, flying from Islamabad to Karachi which faced an Air Blue Airbus, was commanded by Captain Mohsin Raza, equally a young and alert pilot with thousands of hours logged to his flight record. He spotted the other aircraft heading towards his plane and, seconds before an impact could have caused a major catastrophe, climbed up to clear the way.
Both, Mohsin and Munib, religious at heart, very humbly decline the credit for being alert and quick at wits. "It was God Who averted the tragedy", they say.
Captain Mohsin Raza is in Karachi currently appearing before a Court of Inquiry ordered by the Civil Aviation Authority while Captain Munib lives in Islamabad and has just returned from a foreign trip.
At the time of first near miss the Civil Aviation Authority had no high frequency communications available in the flights or on the ground tracking stations. In the absence of modern navigational aid, aircraft losing their corridor and going astray could be understood but not now in the modern times when better facilities are available.
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