Did a pilot really drop a plane into a nosedive to avoid Venus?

Bad Astronomy
By Phil Plait
Apr 18, 2012 7:30 PMNov 19, 2019 9:24 PM

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I fly a lot, and sometimes get the sneaky suspicion that the airline isn't always telling me everything I need to know about why the plane is delayed (assuming they don't want to say "A doohickey fell off mid-flight"), why there's turbulence ("We're flying through an active hurricane"), or why they're out of food ("The rabid badgers that broke loose in first class ate all the honey-roasted peanuts"). But what was allegedly first claimed to be "severe turbulence" on an Air Canada flight in January 2011 turned out to be something a wee bit more scary: the First Officer (FO) woke up from a nap, and thought he saw an approaching Air Force jet, so he plunged the plane into a dive. The Captain then took over and pulled the plane up, resulting in a violent ride for the passengers.

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