Tri-Service

Near Miss As Glider Mistakes Tornado For Bird

Near Miss As Glider Pilot Mistakes Tornados For Birds

An RAF Tornado and a glider had a close encounter of the near-fatal kind when the latter mistook the fighter jet for a buzzard.

The narrow-miss occurred when the pilot at the controls of the Tornado was descending in formation with another fighter plane heading towards RAF Leeming.

Common Buzzard in flight

In order to avoid what would have been a grizzly end for the glider the Tornado pilot had to perform a skilful aerobatic manoeuvre.

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Flying in the skies above North Yorkshire the pilot whizzed beneath the glider in what was a perilously close shave.

The inquest heard the plane may have been barely 100 feet away from the glider at their closest point.

The inquest heard that the glider pilot somehow mistook the Tornado GR4, capable of supersonic flight and armed with Anti-Radiation Missiles alongside 27mm Cannons, for a bird of prey boasting a wingspan of 110 cm and able to flap its wings to reach speeds up to 25 mph.

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The alleged incident happened on the 12th August last year and is being investigated by the UK Airprox Board.

The glider pilot explained he decided to fly north "to connect with some good looking clouds".

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The report states: "He approached the cloud at 2200ft and saw a buzzard circling to his right, so he turned towards it and entered the thermal, circling right to stay in the lift.

The close call occured despite excellent conditions and visibility.

"He completed his first 360 degree turn when he saw something that at first he thought was the buzzard, but quickly realised was an aircraft approaching from the east.

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"He then recognised it as one of a pair of Tornados, by which time they were abeam and to the north and slightly below him."

The Tornado pilot, who reported the risk of collision as "medium", assessed that the glider had been obscured by the enclosure over his cockpit.

Military air traffic controllers said the glider had not sent signals to radar or communicated with RAF Leeming to inform them of his position.

A pair of Royal Air Force Tornado GR4 aircraft performing a display at RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire

The report goes on to state that the incident was shared with the Airspace Users Working Group so as to encourage communication between the glider community and RAF Leeming, especially when gliders fly close to the base.

The conflict of interest occured when air traffic controllers tried to impose routes onto glider pilots in order to avoid collisions, according to anecdotal evidence heard at the inquest.

It concluded "circumstances had conspired against" the Tornado pilots to leave them just below the cloud base in an area where they were likely to encounter gliders and said the incident had been caused by a late sighting by both pilots.