Near Miss Over Scandinavia Aug 16, 2001

Two Boeing aircraft operated by Braathens and Maersk Air were involved in a near-accident last Friday (10 August), it was reported today.

The Braathens aircraft was a Boeing 737-400 en route from Oslo's Gardermoen airport to Malaga, Spain, while the Maersk Air aircraft was a Boeing 737-500 en route from Copenhagen, Denmark to the Faroe Islands.

The two aircraft reportedly approached each other at a speed of 800 kmph on almost the same altitude, at 1020 CET above Kristiansand, Norway.

The two aircraft were reportedly as close as between 1.8 and 2.8 kilometres from each other when the situation was resolved.

The minimum safety distance for aircraft at the same altitude is apparently 9.2 kilometres or five nautical miles, but it should have been even more as the aircraft were on intersecting courses.

The Braathens aircraft discovered the situation before the air traffic control centre did, thanks to the TCAS anti-collision system in the cockpit, the newspaper reported. http://news.airwise.com/stories/2001/08/997992887.html

-- Doris (nocents@bellsouth.net), August 17, 2001