Near miss in the skies
www.news.bbc.co.uk
A flight full of British holidaymakers traveling home from their Turkish break to Belfast feared for their lives when the captain took evasive action to avoid crashing into a passing military aircraft. “There are no reported injuries but we are taking the incident extremely seriously,” said the spokesman for the flight that was operated by Thompson Holidays.
Passengers have reported that the plane violently turned on its side and frightened travellers were left seeing only sea or sky depending on what side of the plane they were on. “I really thought that was it – when the plane went on its side, all you could see was the sea. There was nothing anybody could do,” said Glentoran footballer Jason Hill, who was returning from his holiday in Turkey with his 13 month old child and girlfriend.
It shocked some passengers so much that they have vowed never to fly again: To me it was more like a nose dive – I’ll never fly again,” exclaimed Teresa Kennedy, a passenger from Andersonstown. Yet another passenger reported how well the captain had handled the situation by not only avoiding a collision but also by coming straight onto the speakers and informing the plane about what had just happened.
“Eventually the plane levelled out again and the captain came on immediately to say that he was very sorry for what had happened but he had to take urgent evasive action to avoid a collision,” claims PJ Gillespie from Castlederg. After Monday’s near miss, the plane landed safely in Belfast and a full investigation is now underway.
www.news.bbc.co.uk
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