The Portuguese airline’s aircraft narrowly avoided a collision with the ground, according to Czech media reports.

The TAP plane departed from Lisbon and, already in Czech airspace, lost altitude, coming to within 300 meters of the ground, 60 kilometres from Prague, as reported by Radio Prague International. An emergency climb manoeuvre was performed to reverse the situation.

According to Euronews, the plane was 30 seconds from crashing, and it was only on 12 February that the Czech Civil Aviation Authority made the incident public.

TAP told the Lusa news agency that an internal investigation is being conducted in conjunction with the Czech authority. Although the cause of the incident is not yet clear, industry experts say it may be due to misuse of the autopilot.