Pakistan’s wrong information puts Air India plane at risk

Hyderabad: In a mid-air scare, “incorrect” input by Pakistan’s air traffic control to a Mumbai-bound Air India Dreamliner plane from London led it to come close to another aircraft, prompting a sharp reaction from India.

The Mumbai-bound Air India flight AI-130 from London’s Heathrow Air-portescaped a near-miss incident after the Karachi Air Traffic Control (ATC) gave pilot a wrong frequency that could have changed the flight path of the Boeing 787 and brought it close to Philippine’s Cebu Airline from Dubai. “It is a very serious incident and we do not have any precedent of such an incident,” Airports Authority of India chairman Alok Sinha told reporters on the sidelines of the India Aviation show here.

“We are still deliberating on as to what level should the issue be taken up at the diplomatic level or at some other forum,” Mr Sinha said, asserting “We will ensure that such an incident does not occur again.”

In the incident that occured at 1.30 am on Tuesday, the Karachi ATC asked the pilot of the Air India flight to report two-way with the ATC in Mumbai.