Fighter jets in near miss with rescue helicopter
TWO fighter jets came within seconds of colliding with a rescue helicopter on a mission to winch aboard an injured climber.
The Coastguard Sikorsky was in the Ogwen Valley near Bethesda and was positioning itself to hover so a crewman could be lowered to reach the climber when the two jets roared past.
Only moments previously, the Coastguard helicopter had been occupying the airspace the jets flew through, at the same altitude.
The pilot of the helicopter assessed the risk of collision as “high”.
But according to an investigation into the incident by the UK Airprox Board, one of the RAF Typhoon pilots was unaware there had been any incident until contacted by investigators.
He said he hadn’t seen the helicopter, and assessed the risk of collision as “low”.
A radar controller at RAF Valley said that a Temporary Danger Area (TDA) had been established to protect the helicopter from other aircraft flying in the area when it climbed away from a rescue scene.
A message to this effect had been transmitted.
The weather at the time was said to be good.
An RAF investigation into the incident found the Typhoon pilots were unaware of the TDA.
The only method of communicating TDA information was via radio and the Typhoon pilots did not receive the message.
The investigation added radio coverage at low level in Wales is poor, with the nearest transmitters located at Clee Hill, Shropshire.
In its analysis of the incident, the Airprox Board concluded that the helicopter and Typhoon pilots shared an equal responsibility for collision avoidance and “not to operate in such proximity to other aircraft as to create a collision hazard”.
It classified the incident as one with a low risk of collision.
The Ogwen Valley mountain rescue team had been called to assist a climber who was in difficulty on cliffs above Llyn Idwal.
They had lowered the casualty to the base of a crag on a stretcher, ready for winching aboard the rescue helicopter.