Russian Air Traffic Control Prevents Mid-Air Collision

Russian air traffic controllers prevented a Turkish aircraft and an Air France Airbus A321 from colliding on January 25, the press service of the state corporation for air traffic control said on Friday.

As a result of a mistake by a Turkish pilot, the Beech 400 Beechjet aircraft missed the set altitude, and the two planes found themselves on the same line flying towards each other.

Thanks to the professionalism of an air traffic controller, the collision of the two planes was prevented, he said.

"Having noticed that the Turkish plane continued to climb higher than the set altitude, the air traffic controller immediately ordered it to stop climbing and to descend to its set altitude of 3,000 meters.

"The slow reaction of the Turkish pilots left the plane at an altitude of 3,260 meters. Only after persistent demands did they return to their set altitude," it said.

The Turkish aircraft was carrying businessmen from Sheremetyevo airport to Istanbul and the A321 was flying from Sheremetyevo to Paris.

It was earlier reported that Moscow air traffic controllers prevented a similar accident late last November. An aircraft owned by a Luxembourg company then violated the climbing regime and nearly collided with a Latvian aircraft.

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