Guwahati: A Jet Airways flight from New Delhi to Guwahati with 136 passengers aboard came dangerously close to a possible mid-air collision with a Boeing 747 international flight over Patna on Thursday morning.
Jet Airways authorities here and in New Delhi did not respond to calls from TOI. However, two Congress MPs from Assam, who were also traveling by the Jet aircraft, shared their scary experience that lasted a few seconds.
The MPs said Jet Airways flight 9W 2280 headed for Guwahati, which was take off from New Delhi at 10.15am, was delayed by 25 minutes and the incident occurred around 11.35am.
Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) chief and Rajya Sabha MP Bhubaneswar Kalita was returning home at short notice. He managed to buy a ticket at the last moment and was allotted a seat in one of the rows at the rear of the aircraft. "About an hour after we took off from New Delhi, the plane suddenly dropped down and swerved to the right. The passengers panicked and wanted to know what was wrong. We were told by the pilot that the ATC had asked him to descend as there was an incoming flight flying much below the 1,000 ft gap required between two flights."
However, the Kolkata-based regional executive director of Airports Authority of India (East), Gautam Mukherjee, said no such incident was reported by air traffic controllers either in Patna or Guwahati.
22/07/11 Times of India
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