New Delhi:
Two aircraft came close to each other in mid-air over the Arabian Sea off Mumbai but a collision was averted after the Air Traffic Control alerted them and asked one of them to descend by around 3,000 feet.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has ordered a probe into the near-miss to ascertain how the Male-bound Condor Airlines flight and Qatar Airways plane heading for Melbourne came to "unexpected proximity" while they were flying over the high sea at a place some 300 nautical miles from the shore on Friday morning.
"Director, Air Safety, in Mumbai will probe the matter to find out who mishandled the situation and who was responsible for the incident," Director General of Civil Aviation S N A Zaidi said.
The incident had occurred at around 6.19 am on Friday when the airbus of Condor Airlines, a subsidiary of Lufthansa, which was going from Frankfurt to Male, and a Qatar Airways Boeing, which was travelling from Doha to Melbourne, failed to maintain the "required horizontal separation" while flying at a height of 35,000 feet, he said.
The Mumbai Air Traffic Control (ATC), which handles the air traffic over the oceanic region, asked the Qatar Airways plane to descend by 3,000 feet, thus helping avert a possible air mishap, sources said.
Condor Airlines operates as a chartered tourist airline.