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EAGLE-EYED SARGE SAVES JET FROM DISASTER

Here’s a way to get a first-class upgrade: Help the airline crew cope with a dangerous situation — and maybe save the lives of 300 people.

From his window seat aboard a United Airlines jet, keen-eyed Air Force Sgt. Bartek Bachleda saw what the crew couldn’t — a leak, spewing 6,000 pounds of fuel an hour into the atmosphere, that could have endangered the craft on its trans-Pacific flight.

Right after the Tokyo-bound Boeing 747 took off from Chicago on April 18, Bachleda spotted what looked like a fuel leak from the left-wing tank.

About an hour later, once he was certain as to what it was he was seeing, he alerted a flight attendant — who at first brushed off his concerns.

He got her attention by saying, “Ma’am, it’s an emergency.”

“I told her, ‘You need to inform the captain before we go oceanic,’ ” he said in a recounting released by the Air Force.

The captain, meanwhile, was trying to figure out why the jet seemed to be burning through so much fuel, an airline spokesman said.

So he walked out to Bachleda’s seat and looked out the window. He also watched video Bachleda had shot of the leak.

Planes as big as 747s carry tens of thousands of pounds of fuel. Instead of trying to make an emergency landing, the crew decided to head south to San Francisco, where United has a hub.

The passengers’ trip was delayed by only 6½ hours. Bachleda and a colleague stayed behind to help investigators.

“When we got off the airplane, everyone was thanking us,” he recalled, adding that he flew to Tokyo the next day — seated in the first-class section.

bill.sanderson@nypost.com