Lufthansa: Jet Nearly Collided With Air Mexicana Plane
Thursday October 24, 3:13 pm ET
FRANKFURT (AP)--A Deutsche Lufthansa AG jet narrowly avoided colliding with an Airbus operated by Airline Mexicana de Aviacion SA, as it came in to land in Mexico City, the German airline said Thursday.
The incident occurred as Lufthansa's Boeing 747 with 388 passengers on board approached the airport Oct. 7, said Lufthansa spokesman Michael Lamberty.
According to a report in German news magazine Stern, the Lufthansa pilot pulled the aircraft up sharply after the jet's onboard warning system sounded, ignoring instructions from Mexican air-traffic control. An Air Mexicana Airbus A320 with 120 passengers on board passed just 30 meters below, the magazine said. Air Mexicana is a unit of Mexican airline-holding company Cintra SA .
Lamberty declined to comment on the magazine's account, referring to an investigation of the incident by Mexican and German flight-safety authorities.
German authorities are still investigating how two jets collided above Germany in July, killing 71 people. One of the pilots had followed the urgings of air- traffic control to descend rather than instructions from the on-board warning system to climb.
Stern piece in German:
http://www.stern.de/politik/news/artikel/?id=325100