Staff Reporter
TWO Ryanair planes came ‘dangerously close’ to colliding over Spain earlier this month.
According to a report from the Spanish Civil Aviation Accidents and Incidents Investigation Commission, the ‘serious’ incident occured on October 2, when a Boeing 737-800 flying from Santiago to Palma de Mallorca came close to hitting an identical aircraft heading from Sevilla to Toulouse.
Luckily the alarm was sounded in time and the pilots corrected their courses.
The aircraft were ‘on the frequency of the Madrid control center’ when the anti-collision alert systems on both planes sounded.
According to the commission, the planes were around four kilometers apart horizontally, and just 122 meters apart vertically.
The investigation is continuing.
Ryanair told the Olive Press today: “As the details of this incident confirm, there was no ‘near collision’ as both aircraft took appropriate diversion measures when they were separated by more than two miles and 400 feet of vertical air space”.
