But near-miss involving Flybe Q400 turboprop and RAF fighters bucks overall trend
A scheduled airline flight came within a few metres of collision with a pair of military aircraft in October last year, an investigation by the UK Airprox Board (UKAB) reveals. Overall, however, the board’s study of “airproxes” – near misses – in UK airspace during the last six months of 2004 shows a downward trend compared with previous years.
The 27 October near-collision took place in uncontrolled (class G) airspace over southern Scotland , and involved a Flybe Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 and a formating pair of Royal Air Force BAE Systems Hawks.
The Hawks were operating to visual flight rules in visual meteorological conditions. The Q400 crew had filed an instrument flight rules flight plan to operate a service from Newcastle to Belfast Aldergrove and was operating under a radar information service – the lowest surveillance category – from the Scottish air traffic control centre at Prestwick.
Because neither Hawk had its transponder operating, the controller could see only a primary radar return for the pair with no height information.
The controller passed information about the relative position of the formating aircraft to the Q400, which was descending through flight level 160 (16,000ft/4,880m), but by that time the Hawks and the airliner were closing on almost reciprocal tracks.
Seconds later the Q400 passed directly overhead the formation, with an estimated clearance of 200-300ft. The Q400 crew did not see the Hawks – which were in a level right turn at FL150, with the No 2 completing a formation rejoin – but the formation leader, looking forward, saw the sight of the turboprop’s underside “fill the canopy” before passing out of sight.
During the transition to the planned exercise area, the Hawks had been in contact with Swanwick military control with the lead aircraft’s transponder operating in identification and height modes. On arrival in the exercise, the commander says that he believed he had selected his transponder code to 7000, and then switched to a quiet frequency before beginning formation manoeuvring. But the transponder was not operating during the exercise, although it was later found be serviceable.
Meanwhile, the head of the UKAB, Capt Peter Hunt, says: “Notwithstanding the one [high-risk] airprox...the overall story is one of continuous improvement. Commercial air transport [CAT] airprox [reports] now account for less than four in 10 of all airproxes, and the downward trend in the CAT risk-bearing rate continues.”
DAVID LEARMOUNT/LONDON
Source: Flight International