UPDATE: Delvin Major, head of the Air Accident Investigation Department at the Department of Civil Aviation, has confirmed that Bahamasair pilots took “evasive action” Tuesday afternoon in an incident involving a Silver Airways plane – SEE FULL STORY HERE

By Rashad Rolle

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

AVIATION officials are investigating reports a BahamasAir jet averted a mid-flight collision with a Silver Airway plane on Tuesday afternoon.

BahamasAir flight BHS137 departed Nassau for Marsh Harbour, Abaco, around 5pm when, according to a pastor onboard the jet, a startling incident occurred.

Air Traffic Control, BahamasAir and Air Accident Investigation Department officials all said yesterday they received no report of the alleged incident but that they would now investigate the claim.

Up to press time last night, The Tribune received no response to questions sent to Silver Airways around noon.

Chief investigator of air accidents Delvin Major said if such an incident did occur, the law demands that it be reported. He said such an incident would be “very serious.’

The pastor who spoke to The Tribune requested anonymity to do so.

He said: “Trust me, had it not been for the skilfulness of BahamasAir pilots, the situation could have been fatal beyond a shadow of a doubt. I really want the matter to be reported and investigated but hats off to those BahamasAir pilots.”

The pastor said some 15 minutes into the flight the pilot signalled for passengers to fasten their seatbelts, causing him to grow concerned because there was no weather outside that he believed would cause turbulence.

“We started to go into a bit of a control dive,” he said, adding the dive never became frantic. “When I looked to the right, I saw a plane. I noticed the plane wasn’t going passed us but was coming toward us. The plane came so close I was able to make out the colour but I knew it wasn’t a Sky Bahamas or a Pineapple Airways plane, I just knew the purple colour which Silver planes have.”

“I said to my dad, a plane just like Sky passed by us but it ain’ Sky. I said ‘boy that fly close.’”

The man said after other passengers disembarked he stayed behind and spoke to the First Officer onboard.

“He shook his head and said ‘Boy, that was Silver’.

“He said apparently Nassau, Miami gave them missed coordinates. Many of the passengers, basically all of them did not know what was going on but I’m very alert when I’m flying.

“One of the guys who was with me, he was in the front part of the plane. He said he heard when an alarm went off in the cockpit but he didn’t know what was going on. I assume that was the radar telling them another plane was in close vicinity.”

The pastor said he was “alarmed” by the incident.

“I think something like that, it should be noted and the matter should be looked into. You cannot make those kind of errors in aviation. The day could have caused triple times more mourning than in the Andros situation so I definitely feel like they should be cautioned and some questions should be asked.”

In addition to Chief Investigator Mr Major, The Tribune spoke to BahamasAir’s Director of Safety Ashley Cooper and Bahamas Air Navigation Services Department (BANSD) Manager Keith Major yesterday. No one could verify the incident.

The pilot during the flight, a female, was off from work yesterday. Officials expect to quiz her today.

Last night Sky Bahamas CEO Randy Butler said if the claim is true, he hopes someone in the cockpit comes forward and speaks about it to aviation officials.

“If that happened the way he describe that, a lot of systems and people failed,” he said. “That’s something like, let’s check that system before the next flight so we have safety notices right away.”