An Air China Boeing 737-800 (front) plane waits to take off at Beijing International airport on 6 July 2025. - Photo: AFP via Getty Images
ROME: (Bernama-dpa) A Chinese passenger jet and a cargo plane narrowly avoided a mid-air collision over Russia earlier this month, German Press Agency (dpa) reported, citing media reports.
The incident involved an Air China Airbus A350 and a Boeing 767 operated by Chinese cargo carrier SF Airlines, which reportedly passed each other at a distance of just 90 to 120 metres.
The near miss occurred on July 6 at an altitude of 36,000 feet (almost 11 kilometres) over a remote area of Siberia, according to reports in the South China Morning Post and Italy's La Repubblica.
Air China Flight CA967 was en route from Shanghai to Milan and was carrying a large number of Italian and other European passengers, according to La Repubblica. The SF Airlines cargo plane was flying from Budapest to the Chinese city of Ezhou.
According to the South China Morning Post, Chinese aviation authorities are now investigating why the Air China aircraft climbed from 34,100 feet, and whether this manoeuvre followed an instruction from Russian air traffic control. Russian controllers reportedly issued an urgent order to the cockpit to take evasive action once the risk was identified.
The Chinese newspaper raised the possibility of communication issues between the Russian controller and the Air China crew. Its report said that in a recording, a voice from the ground could be heard asking in English: "Are you climbing with instruction or without instruction? Confirm, please." The cockpit response is: "No, thank you."
In their reports on Tuesday, both newspapers cited data from the flight-tracking service Flightradar24 to support the timeline and altitude reports. - Bernama-dpa
