France B773 and American B738 over Caribbean Sea on Dec 13th 2020, TCAS saves the day

Last Update: December 31, 2020 / 16:58:28 GMT/Zulu time

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Incident Facts

Date of incident
Dec 13, 2020

Classification
Incident

Airline
Air France

Flight number
AF-480

Departure
Paris Charles de Gaulle, France

Destination
Lima, Perú

Aircraft Registration
F-GZNN

Aircraft Type
Boeing 777-300

ICAO Type Designator
B773

An Air France Boeing 777-300, registration F-GZNN performing flight AF-480 from Paris Charles de Gaulle (France) to Lima (Peru), had been enroute at FL360 over the Caribbean Sea about 220nm south of San Juan (Puerto Rico) and was climbing to FL380.

An American Airlines Boeing 737-800, registration N926NN performing flight AA-1546 from St. George (Grenada) to Miami,FL (USA), was enroute at FL380 over the Caribbean Sea about 220nm south of San Juan (Puerto Rico) on a trajectory converging with AF-480 at nearly a right angle.

TCAS activated in both aircraft, the American was instructed to climb, followed and climbed more than 800 feet, the Boeing 777 was instructed to descend and followed descending from about FL377 to FL374, too. After being clear of conflict the Boeing 737 descended back to FL380, the Boeing 777 completed the climb to FL380.

The Boeing 737 crossed the flight path of the Boeing 777 at 38800 feet about 4nm ahead of the Boeing 777, the Boeing 777 crossed the intersecting point at about 37400 feet.

After being clear of conflict both aircraft continued to destinations without further incident.

Venzuela's JIAAC rated the occurrence a serious incident and opened an investigation.
Incident Facts

Date of incident
Dec 13, 2020

Classification
Incident

Airline
Air France

Flight number
AF-480

Departure
Paris Charles de Gaulle, France

Destination
Lima, Perú

Aircraft Registration
F-GZNN

Aircraft Type
Boeing 777-300

ICAO Type Designator
B773

This article is published under license from Avherald.com. © of text by Avherald.com.
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