On June 13, 2022, two commercial aircraft nearly collided: British Airways flight BA15 and Sri Lankan Airlines flight UL504 came dangerously close in Turkish airspace.

The Boeing 787-9 operated by British Airways, registration G-ZBKA, was en route from London Heathrow to Singapore. Sri Lankan Airlines flew from Heathrow to Colombo using the A330-300 4R-ALQ. Both flights were perfectly normal until the A330 pilots were instructed to increase their altitude from 33.000 feet to 35.000 feet.

The Turkish air traffic controller obviously made a mistake because the British Airways Dreamliner was only 15 nautical miles away at the instructed altitude. However, the cockpit crews of both machines have noticed that carrying out the instructions of the air traffic controller is dangerous. The captain of UL504 refused to raise the flight altitude, even though the Ankara center has approved it twice. The pilot lay down and repeatedly pointed out to air traffic control that the British Airways Dreamliner was already at this altitude and only 15 miles away.

But what then followed surprised the pilots of both flights: minutes of silence on the radio and then the succinct instruction that one should not climb because a BA flight to Dubai is said to be at this altitude. BA15 was on its way to Singapore, but that's an open question.

The incident was dangerous because the British Airways Dreamliner was significantly faster than the Sri Lankan Airlines A330. Since the distance between the two long-haul aircraft was very small, a mid-air collision could have possibly occurred. This was prevented by the pilots of both airlines, who were attentive and did not blindly follow instructions from air traffic control.

"SriLankan Airlines commends the timely actions of the pilots of UL 504, which ensured the safety of all passengers, crew and equipment aboard UL 504," the carrier said in a statement. Furthermore, Sri Lankan Airlines emphasizes that both the vigilance of the two pilots and the modern communication and monitoring system of the Airbus A330 contributed to Flight 504 being able to be carried out safely on June 13, 2022. British Airways also only had positive words about the correct reaction of the pilots.