March 26: The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has written a letter to Air India over the issue of flying an aircraft at an altitude of 15,000ft in Nepal’s airspace without the permission from the Air Traffic Controller (ATC).    

Such a reckless move by the Indian airliner almost caused a mid-air collision last Friday, CAAN officials said.  According to the aviation regulator of Nepal, a fatal accident was avoided due to a split-second decision by another aircraft.
The incident occurred last Friday when an Air India plane en route to Kathmandu from New Delhi lowered its altitude to 15,000ft from 19,000ft all of a sudden without the permission from the ATC before landing at the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA).

At the same time, an aircraft of the Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) coming to Kathmandu from Malaysia was also flying at an altitude of 15,000ft, the state-owned national news agency RSS reported.

“As the NAC aircraft took height, a fatal accident was narrowly avoided,” RSS added.    
CAAN Spokesperson Jagannath Niraula confirmed that the Air India has been asked to inform the CAAN about the action of the pilot after an investigating the issue.    
According to RSS, Niraula also said that the CAAN has also formed a probe panel over the issue and the ATC deployed during that time have been prevented from working in an 'Active Position'.