Near-miss as call distracted flight controller

AN RAF tanker aircraft and two F-15 fighters came within a split second of colliding over the North Sea after a flight controller was distracted by a phone call, an official report revealed.

The pilots of the RAF Voyager claimed that one of the United States Air Force jets was as near as 160ft when it flew directly across their path as they were flying at 322mph.

The F-15 flying at 402mph was so close the tanker crew could feel the turbulence as it switched on its afterburner and roared away in a desperate attempt to avoid a crash.

A report by the UK Airprox Board concluded the F-15s had been flown “into conflict” with the Voyager. But it also blamed air traffic controllers for misunderstandings between them and the American pilots.

One controller, based at Stanwick, Hants, was said to have been confused when the F-15s stated they would be flying in the Wash area and assumed they meant the geographic Wash. But the F15 crews meant they were flying into the so-called Wash Aerial Tactics Area which extended further north where the RAF tanker was flying.

The controller assumed the F-15s would be safely further south. As a result, he answered a landline phone and became “embroiled in a distracting and complicated” call.

The near-miss happened on Jan 5 at 16,000ft around 10 miles off the coast of north Norfolk.