TWO RAF Tornado jets almost collided over an air force base while coming in to land, an official report has revealed.

One of the pilots assessed the risk as "high" and investigators said only "drastic" action avoided a collision.

The UK Airprox Board which probes near misses blamed a "misjudgement" by an inexperienced Lossiemouth Tower controller.

It rated the risk of collision as B - its second highest level - where "safety is not assured".

A transcript of the incident given to the Board showed one of the aircrew saying: "I'm not happy with that...I'm going to duck under, he's way too close."

The crew of the other aircraft said:""Well this will be interesting...I'm visual with traffic left ten."

The near miss happened on November 26 as both aircraft - known as Axis 1 and Axis 2 - were below 700ft above the Lossiemouth base.

The HQ Air Command said the incident highlighted the requirement for crews to maintain a high level of situational awareness and a robust lookout when joining or operating within a busy operational aerodrome and, if required, question the direction given by air traffic control.

Angus Robertson, SNP Westminster Leader and MP for Moray which includes RAF Lossiemouth, said the incident was "particularly worrying".

He said: "It is very likely this incident would have been avoided if these aircraft had been fitted with the collision warning systems that the SNP have been demanding for many years.

"It is a complete disgrace that 16 years after such a system was promised it has still not been installed."

The Board report said the aerodrome controller had "limited experience of controlling this aircraft type" but Lossiemouth was planning to change training in light of this incident.

It added: "Both crews had the responsibility for collision avoidance and for not flying into such proximity as to create a danger of collision. Thankfully, the crews of both aircraft maintained visual contact throughout this incident and elected to take suitable avoiding action, albeit at a late stage. Local Air Traffic training and procedures have been amended following a thorough investigation into this incident."

The UK Airprox Board said the crew of Axis 2 were "seduced" into following the controller.

"Once the aerodrome controller had given them landing priority downwind they were then seduced into following along with his plan, perhaps against their better judgement," it said.

"This led the board onto lengthy discussions regarding the air traffic control role in the Airprox, and the dangers of trying to second-guess what other aircraft might be doing, or be capable of doing, when faced with a confliction.

"Acknowledging that the precision approach radar (PAR) controller was relatively inexperienced, the Board was disappointed that he had not given traffic information to Axis 1 on first spotting the potential conflict on his radar.

"However, they were heartened to hear that new simulator scenarios to include the need to give traffic information were being included in PAR training packages, and that these were to be used RAF-wide."

The Board decided "by the narrowest of margins" that the aircrew had not contributed to the event.

It added: "The Board agreed that it had been a misjudgement of sequencing by the Lossiemouth Tower Controller that was at the root of the incident."