Bahrain-Islamabad flight narrowly escapes major disaster

KARACHI: A foreign airline’s aircraft travelling from Bahrain to Islamabad narrowly escaped a major air disaster on Tuesday, ARY News reported citing informed sources.

The passenger aircraft descended to an altitude of 5,000 feet when its ground proximity warning system (GPWS) got activated, alerting the pilot of the impending danger of crashing into hills.

The quick-thinking pilot took the plane back to a higher altitude, averting a major accident.

The sources said the on-duty air traffic controller misguided the pilot after the latter asked for permission to descend to a lower altitude due to the bad weather.The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) director general, taking notice of the near miss, ordered the immediate suspension of the air traffic controller.

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A CAA spokesperson confirmed that the pilot asked for permission to descend due to the inclement weather. “The controller denied the permission initially but agreed when the pilot contacted again and insisted that the aircraft be allowed to descend due to the extremely bad weather,” he said.

The spokesperson said that the air investigation board is looking into the matter.