A satellite video has surfaced showing the moment a commercial pilot averted what could have potentially been the worst accident in aviation history.
According to The East African, the near-collision involving an Ethiopian Airways plane and an Italian Leisure airline flight was prevented when the pilot of one of the planes made a sudden climb to avoid the oncoming flight.
This after he received a warning from the in-flight Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) of the plane during the incident that occurred 49 minutes past midnight.
On Wednesday, August 29, the Ethiopian Airlines flight number ET858, a Boeing 737-800, registration number ET-ASJ left Johannesburg for Addis Ababa at 2100 hours while the Italian leisure airline Neos Boeing 767-306R flight number NOS252 left the Italian city of Verona heading to Zanzibar at 1800 hours.
At 0049 hours, the planes were flying right into each other at the same at a calibrated altitude of 37,000 feet, with the Italian aircraft having entered from the Ethiopian airspace, while the Ethiopian Airlines from the Tanzania airspace.
The TCAS alerted the Ethiopian airline crew about the impending mid-air collision and the pilot climbed to 38,000 feet in just one minute (at 0050 hrs) an altitude that was maintained for five minutes.
TCAS is a mandatory in-built feature in planes with over 30-passengers capacity which helps in monitoring the airspace around an aircraft independent of air traffic control and warns pilots of other transponder-equipped aircraft that may present a threat of mid-air collision (MAC).
The Kenya Air Traffic Controllers’ Association president Peter Ang’awa to blamed the Ethiopian authorities for failing to offer prior co-ordination and estimates.
"Were it not for the TCAS, the story would have been different," Ang’awa stated.
The incident saw Kenyan and Ethiopian traffic controllers trade blames mainly due to the fact that Air Traffic Controllers manning Addis Ababa have laid down their tools in the past few weeks.
Here is the video:
The Ethiopian Airline Pilot saved a situation that could have been the worst ever air accident in the world... watch the satellite video... pic.twitter.com/5kkNnZHxsH
