A recording of a conversation between a Chinese pilot and a Russian air traffic controller circulating online reveals a near-miss incident involving a China Eastern Airlines plane and a SF Airlines cargo aircraft in the early hours of July 6th at 6:00 AM Beijing time. The China Eastern Airlines plane inadvertently climbed to nearly the same altitude as the SF Airlines aircraft, putting the two planes on a collision course. Fortunately, the airborne collision avoidance system kicked in just in time to prevent a major aviation accident.
The recording, lasting for 7 minutes and widely shared on Chinese social media starting from Sunday, July 13th, features English communication. The radar data indicates that the China Eastern Airlines flight CA967, an Airbus A350 traveling from Shanghai to Milan, ascended from 34,100 feet to 36,000 feet, entering a potential collision course with the SF Airlines flight CSS128, a Boeing 767 cargo plane traveling from Budapest to Ezhou, Hubei.
At that moment, the distance between the two planes was only 300 to 400 feet, well below the global minimum standard of 1,000 feet.
Two other Chinese flights, China Eastern Airlines flight CA861 from Beijing to Geneva, and Hainan Airlines flight HU7937 from Beijing to Prague, were flying northwest away from the two planes.
The control tower instructed China Eastern Airlines flight CA861 and Hainan Airlines flight HU7937 to maintain their current altitudes at 36,000 feet and 34,000 feet, respectively.
After receiving altitude instructions for the Hainan Airlines flight, China Eastern Airlines flight CA967 began speaking, but it was not possible to hear the content.
Based on the recording and flight trajectories, it appears that China Eastern Airlines flight CA967 misunderstood the instruction meant for the Hainan Airlines flight and the control tower failed to correct the error, leading the China Eastern Airlines aircraft to follow the wrong command.
A U.S. senior pilot, John Zhang, who listened to the recording, told Epoch Times that the Russian control tower was the main issue, China Eastern Airlines bore some responsibility, and SF Airlines encountered an undeserved crisis. Zhang emphasized the importance of the Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) in avoiding collisions.
The incident triggered the TCAS alarms on both aircraft, prompting the pilots to inquire with the air traffic control authorities about the situation.
The recording later shows the SF Airlines pilot inviting the China Eastern Airlines pilot to switch to another communication channel for a conversation in Chinese. Due to poor audio quality, some parts of the conversation were unclear, but at one point, the SF Airlines pilot said, “I see your aircraft climbing. Were you instructed to climb?” The China Eastern Airlines pilot attributed the incident to the Russian female air traffic controller, calling it a “fuss.”
The China Eastern Airlines pilot mentioned that their A350 aircraft has an automatic avoidance function and asked SF Airlines if they have the same feature. When the risk escalated to a dangerous level, the TCAS would directly trigger Resolution Advisory (RA) alerts, instructing the aircraft to climb or descend to ensure effective evasion.
SF Airlines pilot explained that their Boeing 767 cargo aircraft does not have this function, so upon hearing the ground command to turn right to 150, they promptly executed the maneuver, leading to the TCAS RA alert to descend after the action.
The China Eastern Airlines pilot responded, “Oh, it’s her (the control tower’s) responsibility. Anyway, we can’t explain to them clearly. I don’t know how to communicate with them.”
Both pilots acknowledged the need to report the incident to their respective companies following the close call between the two aircraft.