Mexican airline Volaris fires pilot who recorded near-crash

Mexican airline Volaris fired a pilot who filmed two of the carrier’s planes nearly crashing at Mexico City’s international airport in May, as the pilot broke airline rules by using a phone when she was not allowed to, Volaris said on Friday.

The pilot, Libertad Salmeron, acknowledged in interviews that she broke the “sterile cabin” guidelines, but insisted she had asked her superior for permission to record the video and warned the pilots involved in the near-crash that the runway at Benito Juarez International Airport was occupied.

The video, which Salmeron said she recorded as she was waiting on one runway to take off, shows a Volaris plane coming close to landing on top of another plane.