What happened
On the early morning of Friday, July 10, 2026, an Air Europa Boeing 787-9 (flight UX57 from Madrid to Sao Paulo) and an Iberia Airbus A321XLR (flight IB140 from Recife to Madrid) experienced a close call over the Atlantic Ocean near the West Saharan coast. At 1:23 AM UTC, both aircraft were flying at 36,000 feet on airway N857, heading in opposite directions. Despite typically using even altitudes for westbound and odd for eastbound traffic, both were at the same level. This triggered a Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) resolution advisory. The Air Europa plane climbed while the Iberia plane descended to avoid collision. Both aircraft landed safely. The incident highlights a rare occurrence of same-altitude, same-track conflicts in oceanic airspace