Two planes of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) narrowly escaped a mid-air collision in Iran after they came very close due to the alleged negligence of the Iranian air traffic controller, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Tuesday.

According to the PIA sources, Boeing 777 aircraft of the PIA was at an altitude of 35,000 feet while Airbus A320 of the national airline was at an altitude of 36,000 feet in the Iranian airspace when both escaped the collision.

The PIA officials have written a letter to the Iran’s civil aviation for investigations into the incident.

The incident had taken place in the Iranian airspace at 5:54pm on Sunday.

A Dubai-bound PIA plane from Islamabad and a Peshawar-bound PIA plane from Doha came very close allegedly due to wrong information by the Iranian air traffic controller.

Dubai-bound PIA Flight PK211 from Islamabad was being operated by a Boeing 777 aircraft.

Whereas, Peshawar-bound PIA Flight PK268 from Doha was being operated by an Airbus A320 aircraft.

An alert was issued to the pilots by the automatic collision avoidance system installed in the PIA planes.

The system instructed one aircraft to go up in the air and the other aircraft to decrease in altitude.

The PIA spokesperson confirmed the incident and said: “We have written to the Iran Civil Aviation Organisation for investigations into the matter.”

Reporter: Saeed Ahmed Saeed