Pakistan International Airlines has ordered an inquiry into expected mid-air collision involving a Jumbo aircraft of the Pakistan International Airlines and the private airline company, AirBlue, which was averted in the airs of Rahimyar Khan district on Tuesday night. It was the second incident, which took place in the airs of Rahimyar Khan district. However, no team was constituted for the inquiry till filing of this story.
The Civil Aviation Authorities (CAA) officials also surprised that two such incidents occurred over the last few months involving the aircraft of PIA and the newly-launched private airline, AirBlue.
They said it is strange that the inquiry report into the first incident is yet to come out to fix the responsibility.
"This possible collision was averted due to timely decision of the PIA Pilot Captain Anjum who took immediate decision to take the aircraft to the height of 35,000 feet level because an aircraft of the AirBlue was passing through at 36,000 feet level, only 20 nautical miles away in the same air corridor. It was the game of seconds to take instant action," The CAA authorities said.
Sources said that Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) was perhaps not available in the aircraft of AirBlue and its pilot was not aware this serious situation which may cause a catastrophe. On Tuesday night, PIA flight PK-721 for KHI-ISB-MAN (Karachi-New York) departed from Karachi at 19:30 hrs GMT on way to Islamabad en-route New York. According to the plane record when it reached the airspace over Rahimyar Khan, it was flying at an altitude of 35,300 feet. It was asked to ascend to 37,000 feet and enter into the airway 'J-157' and the pilot started following the instructions from the air traffic control (ATC).
The experts believe that it was the instant action by PIA Pilot Captain Anjum and Co-Pilot Tayab and Flight Engineer Mehmood who reacted sharply to avoid what would have been the worst disaster in country's aviation history.
They said that the verbal warning from the ATC Karachi came a few seconds later, much too late, when somebody at the Control Tower started shouting 'Descend, Descend' to the PIA pilot. But by that time Captain Anjum has already followed the warning relayed by the TCAS and got clear of the collision course to safety.