MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

US fighters 'yards from BA plane'

Two American Air Force fighter planes came close to a British Airways regional passenger aircraft amid “general confusion”, an official accident report has said.

The two F15E Eagle aircraft climbed above the level to which they were cleared to fly and passed within about 1,000 yards of the BA CitiExpress (now BA Connect) Embraer 145 aircraft which was flying at 21,000ft near Bedford, the Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) report said.

The Embraer captain, who was carrying 35 passengers, informed air traffic control he had just seen an F15 pass the nose of the Embraer aircraft about 100ft below and "no more than about 200 yards ahead, descending," said the report.

The AAIB went on: "Inadequate transmission and acknowledgements of clearances within the formation plus the crews' inability to fly either as a coherent formation or as two independent aircraft during the diversion were major contributory factors to the ensuing general confusion.

"Also poor use was made of the highly sophisticated aids available to the crews in monitoring fuel loads, monitoring ground position and using airborne radar."

The report was also critical of air traffic control at Lakenheath in Suffolk for a communication failure which "contributed to the subsequent radar identification problems".

The incident took place on the morning of January 27, 2005. The two fighter planes were flying from RAF Lakenheath for a close air support training sortie at Otterburn Range near Newcastle upon Tyne.

During the training exercise, both aircraft became low on fuel and decided to divert due to poor weather and air traffic delays at Lakenheath. It was some time after this that the Embraer captain reported to London-based air traffic controllers that a military fighter aircraft had passed close in front of him.

Eventually the two fighter planes landed safely at RAF Valley at Holyhead, Anglesey.

The AAIB report said the decision to divert was left too late. The report went on: "Because they were critically short of fuel, the (US) aircraft climbed through their cleared flight level, without transponding, entered controlled airspace and conflicted with the Embraer 145."