How a Pilot Averted a Mid-air Head-on Collision Between Two Aircrafts on Kenyan Airspace Last Week

Two passenger aircrafts allegedly missed each other in the Kenyan airspace by a mere 60 seconds last week, avoiding what would have been one of the world's worst crash between two planes, The East African reports.

The publication reports that the near-collision would have happened 100 kilometres west of Nairobi at Naivasha, Nakuru county but a pilot commandeering one of planes saved the situation by making a sudden climb to avoid the approaching flight. This was after he received a warning from the inflight traffic collision system.

The East African says the incident involving an Ethiopian Airways flight and an Italian leisure airline plane has led to a blame game between Kenya and Ethiopia.

The Ethiopian Airlines flight number ET858 reportedly took off from Johannesburg, South Africa for Addis Ababa at 2100 hours on Wednesday, August 29th. On the other hand, an Italian leisure airline Neos Boeing 767-306R flight number NOS252 left Italian city of Verona heading to Zanzibar. 

The two aircrafts, according to the newspaper, were in Kenyan airspace at 00:49 hours, at the same altitude, with the Italian aircraft having entered Kenya from the Ethiopian airspace, while the Ethiopian one entered from the Tanzania airspace. They were flying towards each other.

The Traffic Collision Avoidance System Resolution Advisory (TCAS) made an alert to the Ethiopian airline crew about an oncoming flight and the pilot rose to 38,000 feet in just one minute (at 00:50 hrs). He reportedly maintained the altitude for 300 seconds, avoiding a mid-air collision.

The TCAS monitors the airspace around an aircraft and alerts pilots of the presence of other planes within the vicinity. Kenyan air traffic controllers are blaming the incident on a strike by Ethiopian air traffic controllers.

“The Italian airliner approached and entered the Kenyan airspace from the Westside using 370L but it wasn’t informed by the Ethiopian air control that an ET flight was also using the same altitude East side as it crossed over Kenya heading to Addis. This was a serious breach of safety,” a source in the Kenyan aviation sector told The East African.

The Ethiopian air traffic controllers are said to have commenced the strike four days prior to the near-crash incident and failed to honor the co-ordination procedures agreed between Kenya and Ethiopia on air traffic navigation and management.

A day after the near mishap, the Kenya Air Traffic Controllers’ Association issued a warning saying that flights going into and out of Ethiopian airspace were not safe.