The pilot of a Condor Airlines plane gave new meaning to the term 'zoom lens' when he diverted from his authorized flight path to swoop in on a planeload of Brits en route to holidays in Canada. His aim? To take a picture of the other plane's pilot, a friend who was making his final flight.

Unfortunately, the German pilot was a mere 200 meters (600 feet) away from the Thomas Cook airlines Boeing 757 before he realized the colleague, whose last flight he so badly wanted to commemorate, was in fact at the controls of a different plane, some 160 kilometers further ahead.

The captain of the British airliner was forced to veer out of the way, 10,000 meters (30,000 feet) in the air above the Canadian coast.

Quick maneuver

The Condor captain, with 234 passengers on board, and a co-pilot have been suspended, the Press Association said. The German plane, flying from Frankfurt to Toronto, broke aircraft separation rules by flying so close to the British airliner, whose pilot reported the incident to Canadian air traffic controllers and to the UK's Civil Aviation Authority.

The Thomas Cook plane was carrying 187 passengers from Gatwick to Toronto. A Thomas Cook spokeswoman said: "Our crew were flying on an agreed track when all of a sudden they got a warning on their TCAS collision avoidance system that another aircraft had entered their airspace. ... The captain carried out a textbook-style maneuver, taking the Thomas Cook aircraft out of danger and on to a higher flight path."

A spokesman for Condor acknowledged that two pilots were suspended, but would not comment on the truth of the allegations that the incident came about because of a photograph attempt.

He also didn't say whether the picture came out clear or blurry.