Sri Lankan, British flights avoid collision

A vigilant crew of a Sri Lankan airline flying from London to
Colombo avoided a possible devastating mid-air collision with a British Airways flight while
in Turkish airspace, a newspaper here reported on Wednesday.
The Ankara air traffic control told the Sri Lankan plane with 275 passengers on board to
climb from 33,000 feet to 35,000 feet, without realizing that the British flight was flying
only 15 miles away at 35,000 feet.
Fortunately, the Sri Lanka crew had detected the British aircraft, which was on its way from
Heathrow to Dubai and Singapore.
The Sri Lankans informed the air traffic control at Ankara that there was a flight already
above them.
The air traffic regulators shockingly insisted that there was no such flight and told the Sri
Lankan flight to touch 35,000 feet.
The Sri Lankan pilot disobeyed the instruction and told the Ankara air traffic control to
again check.
"It was only minutes later that the air traffic responded urgently informing the UL (Sri
Lankan) flight not to climb as there was already a flight right above at 35,000 feet," the
Daily Times reported.
"If the UL captain had climbed to the requested height, the UL flight would have faced a
mid-on collision with the British Airways flight as it was flying at a faster speed than the UL
flight."
Upon landing in Colombo, the crew filed a report on the incident.
The alert Sri Lankan captain thus saved the lives of all passengers and crew on his own
plane and also everyone in the British flight as well.
UNI