Cathay, Dragonair flights in near miss
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Cathay Pacific Airways and Dragonair confirmed that two aircraft “lost separation distance” in an incident in the skies above Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) last week. A Cathay Pacific Boeing 777 carrying 317 passengers and crew from New York and a Dragonair Airbus A330 carrying 296 people from Kaoshiung both arrived in Hong Kong airspace at the same time in poor weather conditions. Both planes were flying at the same altitude when the “loss of separation” occurred. The pilots of the two aircraft were both alerted by their planes’ Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) systems, and pilots were forced to take avoiding action.
A spokesperson for Cathay Pacific said there was “no risk of collision and at no time was the safety of the flights compromised”. The two aircraft were one nautical mile (2,000 metres) apart when the TCAS systems kicked in.
The incident occurred on 18 September, when eight other Cathay Pacific flights were diverted to other airports due to adverse weather conditions.
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