Two long-haul airliners operated by Spanish carriers came dangerously close to colliding high over the Atlantic Ocean earlier this month, with an onboard collision-avoidance system credited for preventing disaster, according to information obtained by The Aviation Herald.
The encounter took place on 10 July 2026 and involved an Iberia Airbus A321neo operating flight IB-140 from Recife, Brazil, to Madrid, and an Air Europa Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner operating flight UX-57 from Madrid to Sao Paulo-Guarulhos, Brazil. The Iberia jet, registered EC-OLE, was heading north toward Europe at around 36,000 feet.
According to the reporting, the Air Europa Dreamliner had been cleared to fly at the same altitude and along the same oceanic track as the Iberia aircraft, but in the opposite direction. Traffic on North Atlantic routes is managed through a structured system of parallel "tracks," and separation between aircraft flying those tracks is fundamental to safety.
The situation was resolved when the aircraft's Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) - frequently described by pilots as the last line of defense against a mid-air collision - issued alerts instructing the crews to take evasive action. Both flights continued to their destinations.
The incident only came to public attention days later, after The Aviation Herald obtained details of what appears to have been an unusually close encounter. Because both aircraft were operated by Spanish carriers, Spain's investigative authorities would ordinarily examine how two flights ended up cleared onto conflicting profiles.
Oceanic airspace presents particular challenges because aircraft are often beyond the range of conventional radar, relying instead on procedural separation, datalink communications and precise crew adherence to assigned tracks and altitudes. TCAS operates independently of ground systems, using transponder signals between aircraft to detect conflicts and coordinate opposing climb-or-descend instructions.
Near-miss events of this severity are uncommon, and investigators typically focus on how the clearances were issued and coordinated. Any findings could carry implications for how oceanic traffic on the busy South America-Europe corridors is managed.
Sources: AVHerald, Paddle Your Own Kanoo. Featured image: AI-generated by AviationShop. By Elena Vargas.
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