Dramatic pictures show the moment a passenger plane coming in to land was forced to manoeuvre past a stray balloon.
Passengers and onlookers on the ground captured the frightening incident as the balloon – which appeared to be carrying an advertising banner – narrowly passed the plane's wing.
The Qatar Airways flight was coming in to land at Sao Paulo when the pilot was forced into evasive action.
One passenger, Denio Costa, managed to take a photo of the balloon in what looks to be close proximity of the aircraft's left wing.
The pilot veered the plane to the right in order to dodge the drifting balloon and avoid a potential mid-air collision.
The Boeing 777 was arriving from Doha on Sunday morning and the incident is now being investigated by officials in Brazil.
Local resident Rafael Freitas took a picture as the balloon flew towards the plane's path and described how the pilot had reacted quickly.
“The Boeing 777 came a little misaligned with the runway to avoid the balloon,” he said in quotes reported by The Sun. “When it passed, it corrected the alignment with a curve.
Qatar Airways told news.com.au that flight QR779 had landed safely "as normal" via a spokesperson, adding that all safety margins were maintained during the manoeuvre.
"The captain filed a report following the flight which is now being investigated by the Brazilian authorities," the spokesperson added.
Releasing unmanned balloons is a crime in Brazil.
Planes and balloons rarely crash in mid-air, although there was a near miss in the UK last year when a Jet2 flight from Ibiza to Newcastle narrowly missed a cluster of purple balloons at 7,000 feet.
A report by the UK Airprox Board which investigates near misses rated it at as a Category A incident where there was a serious risk of collision.
In July 2020, a plane in Germany was believed to have struck a hot-air balloon before crashing into homes in the city of Wesel and killing three people.
Sky News reported at the time that witnesses had told local media that the plane had hit a balloon before crashing.
