Malaysia Airlines denies nearly colliding with another plane over Pakistan

Reports claim plane had near-miss with Islamabad-bound Kuwait Airlines plane

Malaysia Airlines denied on Tuesday that a London-bound flight was involved in a near-miss with another plane in Pakistani airspace.

Following reports by Asian media outlets that one of the airline’s planes headed to London narrowly avoided a collision in skies over Pakistan, according to the Mirror.

It had been claimed the flight nearly crashed with a Kuwait Airlines plane heading to Islamabad.

But Malaysia Airlines says it "strongly denies" the reports and said it does not even fly over Pakistan because of safety fears.

"Malaysia Airlines strongly denies that one of its flights to London experienced a near-miss with a Kuwait Airways aircraft over Pakistan airspace on Sunday, April 5, 2015,” a spokesperson said.

"Following a Safety Information Bulletin (SIB) issued by EASA early this year, Malaysia Airlines has avoided the Pakistani airspace due to increased risk to flight operation safety," he added.

The airline was involved in two major air disasters last year, which claimed the lives of 537 passengers and crew.

The search for the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which vanished from the flight radar over the South China sea on March 8, 2014 is still ongoing.

Read: MH370 report sparks fresh criticism of Malaysia govt, airline

Just 131 days after the plane went missing, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was shot out of the sky as it flew over eastern Ukraine on its way from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.

Read: Dutch team at MH17 crash site recovers more remains

Pakistan's Civil Aviation Authority reportedly said the incident occurred over Zhob district of Balochistan due to weak air traffic control radar signals, according to The Star.