Passengers on board an Allegiant flight were left “terrified” after the pilot was forced to make a sudden manoeuvre to avoid crashing into another plane.
The sudden movement saw the plane have to make a sudden upwards turn to avoid hitting a business jet – causing two flight attendants to fall over, one of whom was injured after she hit her head on a seat arm, and leaving passengers shaking.
“I’m sitting there, like, grabbing the two handrails beside me, because I’m shaking already, terrified,” passenger Jerrica Thacker, 21, told 7News.
“Out of nowhere, it felt like I went down, because I was toward the back of the plane. We didn’t find out until later that we actually went up instead of down.”
The Federal Aviation Administration said: “An air traffic controller in the Miami Air Route Traffic Control Center had instructed flight 485 to turn eastbound at an altitude of 23,000 feet when it crossed in front of a northbound Gulfstream business jet.”
After the incident, the plane returned to Fort Lauderdale, where it had begun its journey.
“The pilot came back on the intercom, and he’s like, ‘Unfortunately, we have headed back to Fort Lauderdale, we have turned around. I had to make an abrupt maneuver to avoid another aircraft,’” Ms Thacker added.
The extent of the flight attendant’s injury is unknown and an investigation into the incident is underway.
