Mid-air collision averted in Assam
By IANSMonday, February 9, 2009
GUWAHATI - A mid-air collision was averted Tuesday when an Indian Airlines flight from Dibrugarh in Assam to Kolkata and an Indian Air Force (IAF) transport aircraft came close to each other, officials said.
The Indian Airlines flight IC 206 with 45 passengers on board was flying over the town of Jorhat in eastern Assam when the IAF’s giant IL-76 Gajraj aircraft came on the same route.
‘The pilot of the IL-76 changed the direction at the last moment on seeing the Indian Airlines plane,’ an IAF official said.
Both aircraft were flying at an altitude of about 17,000 feet over Jorhat airspace.
The incident comes a day after a chopper from President Pratibha Patil’s air convoy came in the way of an Indian Airlines passenger craft about to take off in Mumbai.
