‘TERRIFIED’

Allegiant Air Flight Attendant Hurt During Evasive Action to Dodge Private Jet

The two aircraft received alerts saying they were flying at the same altitude.

An Allegiant Air flight attendant was injured over the weekend as her plane “took evasive action” to avoid a midair collision with another aircraft over Florida, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Flight 485 was ascending out of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport to Lexington, Kentucky, on Sunday when the pilot received an “an automated alert about another aircraft at the same altitude,” the FAA said, adding that the Miami Air Route Traffic Control Center advised the plane “to turn eastbound at an altitude of 23,000 feet when it crossed in front of a northbound Gulfstream business jet.” The Gulfstream jet also took evasive action. The steep climb of the Allegiant plane caused two flight attendants to fall backwards, leaving one hurt. “I was terrified,” passenger Jerrica Thacker, 21, told WESH. After landing back at Fort Lauderdale, Thacker and her family chose to rent a car and drive 15 hours to Kentucky instead. “We were all too shook up to fly again,” she added.