RAF Tornado In Near Miss With Civilian Aircraft

An RAF Tornado came within 400ft (122m) of a civilian light aircraft, a report has revealed.

The UK Airprox Board report says the Tornado was returning to RAF Marham when its crew were forced to change course to avoid a Cessna C150, two nautical miles east of the base.

The risk of collision was described as ‘Medium’ by the Tornado pilot and as ‘none’ by the C150 pilot.

The Tornado was alerted to the presence of the civilian light aircraft by air traffic control leading to the crew deciding to climb 1,000ft (305m) above the Cessna to avoid a collision.

The Airprox board, which investigates near misses, concluded that “although safety had been degraded, there had been no risk of collision.”

It also found the Cessna's aerial photography flight had been arranged on May 11th at short notice.

The report summarises that “inaccurate Traffic Information from Marham ATC contributed to an erroneous mental model in the Tornado crew.” It said:

"The Tornado crew believed the C150 to be to the east of the airfield when in fact it was to the south-west."

Members of the board also commented on the fact that the RAF Marham tower controller “had thought the Tornado was already below the C150 whereas it was actually descending from slightly above.”

The C150 pilot thanked the Tornado crew for their “alertness; however, he opined that the Tornado pilot would have been aware of his presence in the circuit from ATC.”