An investigation is under way into a hair-raising near-miss in which an Auckland-bound Air Asia flight came dangerously close to a packed Jetstar flight as it went to land on the Gold Coast.
The Courier-Mail has been told the Jetstar flight took evasive action after the Air Asia flight strayed towards its flight path.
The aircraft came within 152m of each other, causing alarms to sound in both cockpits. The Jetstar pilots put their aircraft into a climb to re-establish a safe distance between the two planes. The minimum allowed vertical separation for major passenger aircraft in Australia is 305m.
The incident happened about 6km off the coast north of Coolangatta Airport on the Gold Coast just before noon on Thursday last week.
A Jetstar spokesman said the pilots of their A320 aircraft had received clearance from air traffic control to descend into the Gold Coast.