Islamabad-bound flight narrowly escapes crash

Air traffic controller suspended; probe launched

ISLAMABAD:

An international airline narrowly escaped a major accident on Tuesday due to alleged negligence on the part of an air traffic controller.

According to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the flight, which took off from Bahrain at four in the morning, was misled by the air traffic controller (ATC) who instructed him to fly at an altitude of 5,000 feet.

As per the protocol, aircraft in the area are required to maintain an altitude of 8,000 feet.

However, the pilot Boeing 787-9 pilot promptly soared to a higher altitude after the aircraft’s GPS system alerted them about the hazard of a nearby hill.

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“The ATC instructed him not to drop the altitude but later allowed (the aircraft) to descend (further) after multiple calls by the pilot,” a CAA spokesperson confirmed.

The pilot had asked ATC for a lower altitude due to inclement weather.

According to sources, the director-general CAA incident has suspended the ATC and issued an order to probe the incident.