Two Planes Have Bizarrely Close Call Over Atlantic, Triggering TCAS Alert

Every so often we see close calls involving commercial aircraft. As a general rule of thumb, the closer you are to an airport, the higher the odds of a close call, given that this is also the airspace that tends to be the most congested.

Well, here’s something you rarely see — two planes were flying over the Atlantic Ocean at cruising altitude, heading directly for one another at the same altitude. Fortunately TCAS saved the day, as usual. However, one wonders how this screw up happened in the first place.

Air Europe & Iberia jets get TCAS alert off the coast of Africa

The Aviation Herald has the details of an incident that happened in the very early morning hours of Friday, July 10, 2026. It involves two aircraft:

• An Europa Boeing 787-9 with the registration code EC-ODH that was operating flight UX57 from Madrid (MAD) to Sao Paulo (GRU)
• An Iberia Airbus A321XLR with the registration code EC-OLE that was operating flight IB140 from Recife (REC) to Madrid

At the time of the incident, at 1:23AM UTC, both planes were flying at 36,000 feet, over the Atlantic Ocean, near the West Saharan coast. As you’d expect, the Air Europa plane was traveling southwest bound, and the Iberia plane traveling northeast bound.

The planes were flying the same airway, but in opposite directions. Specifically, airway N857, between ETIBA and BIPET reporting points. Think of these airways as being like highways in the sky, where planes fly the same “track.”

Anyway, while flying their assigned paths (or so they thought), both planes had TCAS resolution advisory alarms go off. For those not familiar with TCAS, this stands for Traffic Collision Avoidance System, and it issues resolution advisories to pilots, giving them instructions about what maneuvers to make, based on traffic becoming dangerously close.

As the resolution advisories activated, the Air Europe Boeing 787 climbed, while the Iberia Airbus A321 descended. Both aircraft ultimately continued to their destinations, and landed safely. I’m curious what it was like in the cabin, as passengers must have felt the very sudden altitude change.

Suffice it to say that planes flying the same path but in opposite directions could have catastrophic implications. That’s especially true when you consider how quickly the planes were moving toward one another, leaving little time to respond. Assuming both planes were traveling at around 500 miles per hour, that means they were approaching one another at a speed of 1,000 miles per hour.

Was this a pilot air traffic controller error, or…?

To state the obvious, something went seriously wrong for two planes to have a TCAS resolution advisory while at cruising altitude on a long haul flight, especially while flying on predictable airways.

Generally aviation has a built-in buffer to avoid these kinds of potential head-on flight paths crossing, as planes flying west typically fly at even thousands of feet (36K, 38K, etc.), while planes flying east typically fly at odd thousands of feet (35K, 37K, etc.). The thing is, that doesn’t always apply in oceanic airspace.

So who messed this up? Were the pilots of one of the planes not flying at their assigned altitude? Was one of the planes given incorrect clearance instructions? It’s interesting to note that the Iberia A321 which was initially flying at 36,000 feet descended to 35,000 feet due to the TCAS resolution advisory, then climbed to 37,000 feet, and then later climbed to 38,000 feet.

Bottom line

An Iberia Airbus A321XLR and Air Europa Boeing 787-9 had a very close call over the Atlantic Ocean near Africa, when a TCAS RA triggered for both aircraft. The planes were flying on the same track in opposite directions at the same altitude. Following the alert, one plane climbed, while the other plane descended.

It goes without saying that this shouldn’t happen. One just wonders where the mistake was made that caused this.

What do you make of this very odd cruising altitude TCAS situation?