An Allegiant Air passenger plane taking off from Fort Lauderdale bound for Kentucky had to make a sudden emergency maneuver to avoid colliding with a private jet traveling at the same altitude.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reported this Saturday in a release that the event occurred last Sunday and is under investigation. He added that during the unexpected maneuver a flight attendant was injured.
The note explains that after Kentucky-bound Flight 485 took off from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, the pilot “received an automatic alert about another plane at the same altitude“, so he had to take “evasive action” to avoid a mid-air collision.
He points out that an air traffic controller Miami Air Route Traffic Control Center he instructed the plane “to turn east at an altitude of 23,000 feet when it cut ahead of a northbound Gulfstream business jet.”
According to the FAA, the pilot of the Gulfstream jet was also notified of the alert and took evasive action as well.
Allegiant’s aircraft made a sharp upward turn, then dived to a steady state. During the maneuver, two flight attendants fell to the ground and one of them was injured: it took about five minutes to help her reach the rear of the aircraft, the FAA said.
About 20 minutes after the maneuver, the pilot told the passengers over the intercom that the plane was returning to Fort Lauderdale and that he had to do the sudden maneuver to avoid a collisionwhich terrified the passengers, who began to pray and cry.
The aircraft returned to the Fort Lauderdale airport, where the injured flight attendant was treated by a medical team, said the agency, which is currently investigating the incident.
One of the Allegiant passengers, Jerrica Thacker, 21, told the channel CNN that the plane suddenly “went uphill” and “liked a roller coaster.”
“It looked like we were going into a tailspin, but then we found out we were going straight up. … I was terrified,” she said.
The young woman’s family returned to Kentucky in a car. They said they preferred to drive 15 hours because they were “too shocked to fly again.”
