Military jets in near miss with civilian plane

The official probe has revealed that following the incident a Typhoon pilot attended an official meeting to brief civilian flight controllers about the capabilities of the fighter jet - so that future near misses could be avoided.

The incident between a Jetstream 41 and two Typhoon GR4s happened on June 25, about 15 miles south east of Lossiemouth, where the warplanes were based.

The Typhoons were conducting air combat training, while the Jetstream had left from Aberdeen heading towards Inverness.

While the UK Airprox Board, which officially probes reported near misses, said there was no risk of collision, it added that it was encouraged that a meeting had been held last month between the military and civilian flight controllers to avoid similar incidents.

HQ Air Command said in its submission to the board: "This incident highlights the need for controllers to understand the intentions of the pilots concerned. While all aircraft were entitled to operate in the airspace, the dynamic manoeuvring of the Typhoons meant that their positioning (in all dimensions) was always going to be difficult for the Montrose (air traffic) controller to predict.

"The decision to route through the airspace based on the 'current' position of the Typhoon pair was probably flawed and this is not the first Airprox that has occurred where a pair of military fast-jets has split to conduct high energy manoeuvres throughout a block of altitude notified to Air Traffic Control.

"Fortunately the Typhoon pilots gained radar on the JS41 and that, coupled with pertinent Traffic Information from the Swanwick Military controller, allowed appropriate separation to be maintained."

He added that a meeting of The Regional Airspace Users' Working Group was held at RAF Lossiemouth on November 4 included a capabilities brief from a Typhoon pilot to civil controllers, explaining the performance of the aircraft and typical training profiles "to enable wider understanding of Typhoon operations."

"This will hopefully go some way to improving the understanding of military operations in northern Scotland and aid the decision making of civil controllers faced with dynamic fast-jet manoeuvring," he said.

The minimum distance between the two aircraft was 200ft vertically and 2.8 miles horizontally, said the Board.

"It was noted that the aircraft (Jetstream) was operating a scheduled flight in Class G airspace; there was no airway or advisory route for its flight from Aberdeen to its destination until it reached Inverness. The Board hoped that the aircraft operator had factored this into their risk assessment, and particularly now that Typhoons had moved to Lossiemouth," said the report.

"The Board then discussed the degree of risk. Although deconfliction minima had not been achieved it was considered that there had been no risk of a collision."