Two aircraft face near-miss at Karachi airport

KARACHI: Two aircraft narrowly missed each other at the Jinnah International Airport on Saturday.

According to aviation sources, AirSial flight PF123 from Karachi to Islamabad was due to depart at 1pm on Saturday.

The Airbus A320 took position from runway 7R to take off at 1:14pm.

According to the airport record, AirSial’s PF123 took off at 1:15pm. At the same time, the national airline’s flight PK351 from Peshawar was on the final approach to land on the same runway. When the AirSial flight started takeoff, the PIA plane was just one kilometre from the runway.

According to aviation sources, the PIA aircraft touched down when the AirSial plane was taking off. Sources said air traffic control had allegedly asked the national airline pilot to “go around” but negligence occurred. An investigation has been launched to ascertain whether it was the negligence of the air traffic control or that of the PIA pilot.