Kathmandu. Nepal has banned pilots of an Air India flight from flying in its airspace after they brought down their airplane to 15,000 feet on March 26 without the permission of the Air Traffic Controller (ATC), nearly causing a mid-air collision with a Nepal Airlines flight over Kathmandu.
On March 26, before landing at the Tribhuvan International Airport, an Air India plane from New Delhi, flying at 19,000 feet, suddenly descended to 15,000 feet.
This made it almost collide with a Nepal Airlines plane inbound from Kuala Lumpur and the accident was averted after the Nepal Airlines pilots took down their plane to 7,000 feet.
The Nepal Airlines plane was holding at 15,000 feet when the Air India plane suddenly came down to the same level. As the two came in a position of collision, an alert was automatically sounded in both cockpits and a possible fatal accident was averted, said officials at Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN).
Following the incident, the CAAN has suspended Air Traffic Controllers (ATCs) of Tribhuvan International Airport involved in the incident until further notice. It has also written to its Indian counterpart to take action against the Air India pilots who were involved in the incident.
Jagannath Niraula, spokesperson of the Authority, said that a letter has been sent to Air India with a message to India’s civil aviation authority to investigate and take action on the matter. “We have written to investigate the incident between Air India and Nepal Airlines and take necessary action and inform the authority,” he said.
