Airplane escapes mid-air crash by 200 feet
Published: July 27, 2005
A PASSENGER aircraft may have been just 200 feet from disaster after its pilots failed to spot two fast approaching military jets, an official report revealed today.
A probe into the “disturbing” near miss over the Solway Firth found that the military pilots had no time to take avoiding action and were forced to fly under the Dash 8 flight from Newcastle to Belfast.
The UK Airprox (aircraft proximity) Board said there had been a “high risk” of collision during the incident on October 27 last year.
The crew of one of the Hawks reported the Dash 8 flying towards them as little as 200ft above. The report added: “The Hawk pilot’s unit comments that this was a deeply disturbing incident.”
The report said the cause of the incident was the non-sighting of the Hawks by the Dash 8 pilots “and, effectively, a non-sighting by the Hawk leader”.
The near miss, which happened over Burrow Head, was the only one of the year in which a passenger plane was deemed to have been in a category A near-miss.
Category A cases are those in which an actual risk of collision existed. The other risk-bearing category is category B in which the safety of the aircraft involved was compromised. The board reported that there were 207 reported airprox (near-misses) in 2004 compared with an average total of 201 over the last five years.
Of the incidents last year, only 33 per cent were in category A and category B - the lowest percentage for five years and compared with a five-year average of 38 per cent.
UK Airprox Board director Peter Hunt said: “Notwithstanding the one risk category A airprox involving a commercial aircraft in the latter half of 2004, the overall story is one of continuous improvement.
“Commercial air transport (CAT) airprox now account for less than four in ten of all airprox and the downward trend in the CAT risk-bearing rate continues, which is to be welcomed.
“It has long been part of the aviation safety culture for people to report openly any safety-related incident. This openness can bring safety improvements and allows others to learn valuable lessons.”
Three years ago, a crew of a Dash 8 travelling from Newcastle to Stavanger in Norway reported a near miss with two Sea Harriers on an air defence exercise 30 miles north-east of Newcastle airport.
The report said the pilots of the Harriers had wrongly identified their target and broke off as soon as they recognised it as a civilian aircraft. They had not realised their mistake until they came within visual range.
Five years ago, an RAF Tornado F3 came within about 300ft horizontally and 100ft vertically of a Shorts SD-360 aircraft bound for Newcastle.
The Hawk jet is used for training military pilots, but the experience of the crew at the time of the near miss is not known. The report did not reveal how many passengers were on board the Dash 8.
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Escapes from Natural Disasters (Great Escapes)Earlier this year, the UK Airprox Board ruled an RAF fighter jet should have seen a helicopter carrying North Sea oil workers that he missed by just 50ft.
However, it said the helicopter pilots’ decision to fly below normal altitude had been a “significant contributory factor”.
The board said better co-ordination between military and civil aircraft had started since the incident, in February last year, 120 miles off the Scottish coast.
An RAF Tornado, from Leuchars, and a Bristow Super Puma helicopter, returning to Aberdeen, were in radio contact with separate air traffic controllers.
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