A Delta Air Lines flight headed from New York to Trinidad narrowly avoided a mid-air, head-on collision with a Russian-registered passenger jet near near Puerto Rico, a U.S. official said Friday.

Peter Knudson of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) told AFP news that a Delta Boeing B737-800 and a Transaero Boeing B747-400, registered in Russia, were travelling toward one another on Thursday night at the exact same altitude of 10,058 meters (33,000 feet).

The airliners were a minute away from "occupying the same airspace" at 33,000 feet over the Atlantic when the Russian aircraft descended about 300 feet to avoid hitting the U.S. plane, Knudson said.

The incident occurred at approximately 6:37 p.m. (2237 GMT) Thursday over the Caribbean Ocean, 179 miles north of San Juan, Puerto Rico. It is not clear how many passengers were on board and how the situation occurred.

The NTSB said there were no injuries. The Delta Boeing 737 - with 152 passengers aboard - was headed from New York's Kennedy International Airport to Port of Spain, Trinidad.