Pilots, when landing at Sabiha Gokcen Airport in Istanbul and departing from it for two days, receive signals from the aircraft collision warning system in the air (TCAS), the DHA news agency reports.
DHA provides a transcript of a conversation between one of the pilots who received the warning and the dispatcher.
"At the last stage of the approach, we received an air traffic warning at an altitude of 300 feet (about 91 m). It could have been a drone or another aircraft. I bring it to your attention," says the pilot.
"All planes transmit this warning in the morning. The information has been transferred to the authorities, searches are underway from the sea… We have been dealing with this problem for 2.5 hours, many transport companies have warned about this before you, we have also reported this to the Coast Guard. We assume that it was probably a ship at sea," the dispatcher answers him.
The dispatching service noted that earlier another plane informed them about an alarm received about 2.5 miles (about 4 km) from the airport. According to that aircraft, the warning came from behind the ship. After that, the pilot, with whom the dispatcher was talking, reported that he saw "a vehicle descending, which he considers unidentified," 500 feet (152 m) below his plane.
Search operations were launched in the airport area — at sea, in the air and on land. According to DHA, at the moment it is not known why the warnings were received, the search did not bring results.
In November, Air France suspended flights over the Red Sea after pilots noticed a glowing object in the sky at the time of the flight over Sudan, RBC reminds.