Qatar Airways 777 near collision with air balloon landing in São Paulo, forced to make evasive maneuver — Aviation Weekly

A Qatar Airways Boeing 777-300ER was forced to make evasive maneuvers while approaching São Paulo yesterday when an unmanned hot air balloon drifted into the aircraft’s approach path.

The aircraft, a Boeing 777-300ER registration A7-BEV operating flight QR779 from Doha Hamad International Airport (DOH) to São Paulo Guarulhos International Airport (GRU), was on approach to GRU when an unmanned hot-air-balloon drifted into the aircraft’s flight path, luckily the pilots were able to spot the hot-air-balloon and made evasive maneuvers to avoid a collision. The incident was witnessed by Rafael Freitas, who was photographing aircraft landing at the airport (plane-spotting). According to Freitas, “the Boeing 777 came in a little misaligned with the runway to avoid the balloon. When it had passed the balloon, it turned to correct its alignment.”