Emirates A380 flight ‘almost collides’ with Air Seychelles aircraft – reports

An Emirates Airbus A380 flight from Dubai to Mauritius “almost collided” with an Air Seychelles flight that was leaving from the island country during the weekend, according to reports.

On Friday, July 14, Emirates flight EK703, operated on an A380-800 aircraft, was preparing to descend in Mauritius. Meanwhile Air Seychelles flight HM054 – operated by a Airbus A330-200, was cleared for take-off from Mauritius to Mahe Island.

According to reports, while the Air Seychelles was given clearance by the Mauritius Air Traffic Control (ATC) to climb and maintain 37,000 ft, EK703 was given clearance to descend and maintain 38,000 ft.

However, reports allege that the Emirates crew read back Flight Level 360 (36,000 ft) to Mauritius ATC – which was not corrected – and began the descent.

As they headed towards a possible collision, both the flights received TCAS (traffic collision avoidance system) resolution advisories, and the Air Seychelles flight also sharply turned right, preventing an accident.

According to a report by The Aviation Herald, data from transponders of both the aircraft implies that the horizontal separation between the two planes was about 7.5 nautical miles when they passed through FL360 (36,000ft) at zero vertical separation, and was about 4 nautical miles when the vertical separation between the two aircraft reached 1,000 feet with EK703 below FL360 and HM54 at FL370 (37,000 ft).

In a brief statement, an Emirates spokesperson said: “Emirates has received reports of an event on July 14, 2017 in relation to aircraft separation involving flight EK703 in Mauritius airspace. The matter has been reported to the respective air transport authorities and Emirates will extend its full cooperation to any investigation.

“The safety of our passengers and crew is of utmost importance.”

Emirates offers daily flights to and from Mauritius. Air Seychelles flies five times weekly to and from Mauritius.

In March this year, an Emirates A380 bound for Dubai also collided with a Scoot 787 Dreamliner in the early hours of the morning at Singapore’s Changi Airport.

Both the planes needed repairs.

Read more: Emirates A380 collides with Scoot plane in Singapore

Also read: Emirates A380 ‘nearly caused private jet crash over Arabian Sea’ – report