An aircraft flown by the Dutch airline, KLM, was involved in near misses with two other aircraft, including a Swissair plane, over the Atlantic yesterday about 450 miles south-west of Ireland.
Swissair suffered its worst disaster last week when a flight from New York to Geneva crashed into the Atlantic off Canada after reporting smoke in the cabin. All 229 people on board were killed.
In yesterday's first incident, which happened at about 2.30 p.m., a KLM aircraft carrying 272 passengers was travelling from the Caribbean island of Curacao to Amsterdam when it was involved in a near miss with a Swissair plane with 151 people on board, travelling from Geneva to New York.
A few minutes later the same KLM aircraft was in another near miss with a Boeing 767 flying from Gatwick to New York. The third airline involved was not identified last night by the British Civil Aviation Authority, which confirmed the two incidents. All three aircraft were at 35,000 feet.
The incidents happened outside Irish airspace, which extends 240 miles west of Ireland. British airspace extends from 240 miles off the Irish coast to the centre of the Atlantic, where the Canadian and US authorities take over.
A collision was avoided thanks to electronic warning devices, a Swissair spokesman said. It is not known how close the aircraft came. A Swissair spokesman said all three aircraft had Traffic Collision Avoidance System equipment, which detects other aircraft "a long way ahead". He added: "There was no danger to passengers."