Emirates’ Airbus A380-800 (flight EK-703), a double decker plane from Dubai boarding hundred of passengers almost collided with another Air Seychelles Airbus A330-200 when it was descending at an airport in Mauritius, on its way to Mahe Island.
It was reported that the world’s largest passenger plane headed towards the path of Air Seychelles flight instead of descending to 36,000 feet. However, the pilot of Air Seychelles tried making a sharp turn to avoid the collision over the Indian Ocean.
The carrier mentioned that Captain Roberti Vallicelli and Seychellois First Officer Ronny Morel was highly commended for operating the HM054 flight from Mauritius to Seychelles on Friday evening.
The UAE airline’s spokesperson stated that Emirates has received reports on an event on 14th July related to the aircraft separation involving flight EK-703 in Mauritius airspace.
The matter was further reported to to the respective airlines authorities and Emirates extended full support to any investigation.They also mentioned that the safety of passengers and crew was of prime importance.
Saj Ahmed, chief analyst at Strategic Aero Research mentioned that the Arab Crew could not be blamed for the error, it was due to misreading of the flight level instruction.
ATC should have informed that A380 crew again and confirmed about the clearance that it should have descended to 38,000 feet and not 36,000 feet. The crew of A380 did the right thing and ATC should have more carefully checked the flight levels which they did not.The competencies of ATC staff should be asked instead the flight crews of both the planes.
Under the FAA regulations it is mentioned that the passenger aircraft are required to fly at least three miles apart horizontally or 1,000 feet vertically.
The traffic alert and Collision Avoiding System (TCAS) tracks the progress of another aircraft with the help of beacon transponders.
It helps the pilot in avoiding the collision with other planes in the air, modern aircraft are installed with TCAS alerting the pilots of air traffic that might lead to collision.
