Iberia A321XLR and Air Europa 787 narrowly avoid collision over Western Sahara airspace
Both aircraft were at same cruise altitude on bidirectional airway in Canaries airspace. Spanish investigators are probing an indecent in which a Boeing 787-9 and an Airbus A321XLR took evasive action while travelling head-on along the same airway at the same cruise altitude. The aircraft were converging from opposite directions at 36,000ft on airway N857, according to preliminary information from Spanish investigation authority CIAIAC. CIAIAC identifies the aircraft involved as an Iberia A321XLR (EC-OLE), heading northeast, and an Air Europa 787 (EC-NBM). According to documents from Spanish air navigation service Enaire and a collision-risk analysis from Eurocontrol, airway N857 is bidirectional. Aircraft flying the even-numbered cruise altitude of 36,000ft would typically be southbound on this airway – like the 787 – with northbound aircraft occupying odd-numbered levels. CIAIAC states that the 10 July incident occurred in darkness, between the waypoints ETIBA and BIPET within oceanic airspace of the Canaries upper information region. This section of the airway lies some 70nm off the coastline of the territory of Western Sahara. CIAIAC says the aircraft were "at the same flight level, flying on the same airway in the opposite direction", but has not elaborated on how they came to be in conflict. The inquiry says the conflict was resolved by the collision-avoidance systems on both aircraft, leading the A321XLR to descend by 500ft and the 787 to climb by 400ft. None of the 454 passengers and 18 crew members on board the jets was injured.