A major air disaster was averted Wednesday night when two passenger aircraft narrowly averted a mid-air collision some 50 kilometers from the southern part of Pakistan's Punjab province, officials said. Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight PK-309 flying from Islamabad to Karachi and a plane of private airline, Air Blue, coming from Karachi to Islamabad, nearly averted a collision as both the planes were flying at the same altitude. Officials said the disaster was only five seconds away had the two aircraft continued flying on the same air corridor. The Karachi bound PIA flight, PK 309, carrying 179 passengers, at the last moment, had to drop the altitude to avoid the imminent disaster. The aircraft dipped so suddenly that a number of passengers hit the ceiling of the plane and were injured, officials said. The injured passengers were given first aid at the Karachi airport when the PK-309 landed there safely. Federal Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed was also flying to Karachi in the same flight.
