On June 4th, in the Mexican skies, a tragedy was narrowly avoided. A commercial flight Aeroméxico, operated by a Boeing 737 and departing from Mexico City with destination Oaxaca, narrowly avoided a collision with a group of Mexican special forces paratroopers, engaged in an operational exercise over the Valley of Mexico.
It was the commander of the commercial flight who avoided the collision by executing a rapid evasive maneuver during ascent. “Les íbamos a pegar”, he reported via radio: “We were about to hit them”.
The Reconstruction of the Incident
According to reports from El Financiero, the episode occurred around 7:00 in the morning, while the Boeing was ascending and was at about 15,000 feet altitude (approximately 4,500 meters). The flight suddenly found itself in the same airspace as a Fuerza Aérea aircraft (flight FAM 3201) engaged in paratrooper drops.
The Aeroméxico pilot immediately contacted the control tower to report the presence of suspicious “traffic”: “We have traffic in sight… are they paratroopers?” can be heard in the recorded audio of the conversation. After receiving confirmation, the commander decided to ascend to avoid a potential collision.
Communication Error Between Entities
At the root of the near incident seems to be a serious communication failure among air traffic controllers. A NOTAM (Notice to Airmen), number B0854/25, was indeed active, indicating flight restrictions in the area precisely due to military activities. However, according to internal sources at the Mexican Airspace Navigation Service (SENEAM), this information was not correctly communicated to the operational flight controllers.
“Apparently the authorization remained on a control center manager's desk”, revealed an anonymous source. “The staff was unaware of the drop”.
Ongoing Investigation
The AFAC (Agencia Federal de Aviación Civil) has launched an investigation into the incident, which occurs at an already critical time for Mexican civil aviation, marked by a shortage of controllers and union tensions.
Aeroméxico has refused to comment on the incident. The general director of SENEAM, Javier Vega, also avoided questions during an official event.
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