United, Saudi aircraft in near-miss

Two passenger aircraft, one from Bangladesh and the other from Saudi Arabia, narrowly avoided a mid-air collision over the eastern Indian city of Jamshedpur early on Monday, it has now been revealed.

Officials say one of the pilots wrongly acted on a command from the Air Traffic Control (ATC) that was not meant for his aircraft, reports bdnews24.com.

The incident took place around 8.30am on Monday morning.

The aircraft were not to land in Kolkata; rather they were over-flying the Kolkata sky on way to their respective destinations.

Sources at the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International (NSCBI) Airport in Kolkata said that three passenger flights-a Saudi Arabia Airlines flight from Hong Kong to Jeddah, the United Airways (Bangladesh) flight from Muscat to Dhaka and an Emirates flight from Dubai to Dhaka-were flying through the Kolkata Flight Information Region (FIR) on way to their destinations.

The three aircraft were flying at a distance of some 30 to 40 nautical miles from Kolkata and were very close to Jamshedpur.

The ATC at the NSCBI Airport was regulating the flights.