Jets in near miss over the Atlantic

Two passenger planes were within 60 seconds of colliding over the Atlantic on Thursday before one or both veered away from the other, according to U.S. authorities.

Officials of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said the agency was investigating an incident that occurred over the Atlantic Ocean, north of Puerto Rico, in which a Delta Air Lines jet and a Russian-registered Transaero jet were heading toward each other on a collision course when cockpit alarms sounded.

The NTSB said that the pilot of the Russian Transaero jet, a Boeing 747, dropped 200 to 300 feet in order to avoid colliding with Delta flight 485.

The planes were both flying at 33,000 feet over open the ocean, and were no more than “60 seconds apart from occupying the same airspace,” confirmed Peter Knudson, a spokesman for the NTSB.

The spokesman said that the agency does not yet have sufficient information to determine if a collision would have occurred without the maneuver of the Russian pilot, or if they would have missed each other by a narrow margin.

When the incident occurred at around 6:30 pm, the planes were approximately 180 miles north of San Juan, Puerto Rico. The Delta Boeing 737 had 152 passengers on board, and was headed from New York’s JFK Airport to Port of Spain, in Trinidad.

According to the NTSB, there no injuries were sustained.

www.ntsb.gov