Jet flight with 134 passengers averts mid-air collision
Guwahati, July 21 (IANS): A Jet Airways flight with 134 passengers on board narrowly averted a mid-air collision on Thursday, triggering panic aboard, passengers said.
Jet Airways Flight No 9W 2280 from New Delhi to Guwahati was probably flying over Patna when it abruptly lost control, leading to chaos inside.
"First the flight abruptly turned right and then began to plummet. We thought it would crash. There was chaos and people were screaming inside," Caushik Bezboruah, chief executive officer of News Live, a satellite TV channel from Guwahati, told IANS.
"I heard people crying, some praying on top of their voices. It was a chaotic situation for close to a minute before the pilot took control," added Bhaskar Sharma, director of News Live.
Both Bezboruah and Sharma were seated in the emergency exit row of the plane.
Soon after, the pilot announced that another plane was approaching from the opposite direction and was inside the "safe zone".
"The pilot said the flight's computer system automatically navigated the plane and moved away from the path of the approaching flight to avoid a mid-air collision," Bezboruah said.
The incident took place around 11.35 a.m. The Jet Airways flight landed safely in Guwahati around 1 p.m.
"No one was injured but I saw a woman with an infant frantically trying to reach her seat from the washroom when this incident took place. She didn't manage to reach her seat and instead sat on the aisle," Sharma said.
Among those aboard the plane included Assam Congress president Bhubaneswar Kalita and Congress MP Rani Narah. "God is great. We had a near brush with death," said Narah.
Jet Airways issued a statement regarding the incident.
"Jet Airways flight 9W 2280 from Delhi to Guwahati-Agartala encountered rough air generated by a large Boeing 747 taking off at around 1122 hrs this morning at Indira Gandhi International Airport. The flight was uneventful, continued on its normal course and the aircraft landed safely at its destination in Gawahati at 1300 hrs," the statement said.