News reports yesterday freaked us the ‘f’ out, that two airplanes almost collided in Bali airspace.
A Denpasar representative of Indonesia’s Air Navigation Agency told local media that they were investigating claims about the close call.
Today, however, AirNav’s director of operations and the agency’s director general have both been quoted in local media as vehemently denying that there was a near head-on collision between Bali-bound Lion Air JT 960 and Garuda Indonesia GA 340. Both officials said the one thousand-foot altitude difference separating the two aircraft was safe.
“No way (was there danger), because the Garuda (plane) was at an altitude of 17,000 feet, and the Lion (plane) at 16,000 feet, then Lion was ordered down to 15,000, Garuda to 16,000,” AirNav Director General Bambang Tjahjono told Republika.
Tjahjono says the thousand-foot vertical difference is still in line with international standards. He added the occurrence happened during inclement weather conditions and a lot of flights were “holding” in Bali at that time. Still, AirNav is investigating why an alarm was sounded about the flights.
Meanwhile, AirNav Director of Operations Vishnu Darjono also insisted “the position (of the planes) was safe,” as quoted by Suara.
The two planes made safe landings, Lion in Denpasar and Garuda in Surabaya.
Darjono says the Garuda flight landed in Surabaya instead of Denpasar because of bad weather in Bali, not because of any near-collision.
