RAF jet just 200m from near-miss catastrophe

An RAF Tornado jet came within 200 metres of a catastrophic collision with two Swedish airforce fighters as it descended through the cloudy skies over a Scottish air base.

The Tornado GR4 strike aircraft had been cleared to land at RAF Lossiemouth in Moray because the plane was running low on fuel when the “Category A” incident happened in October last year, according to a report by the Civil Aviation Authority’s UK Airprox Board.

None of the aircraft involved in the incident had to take avoiding action as the Tornado was already descending towards the runway – but investigators said the fact there had not been a collision was due to luck.

“Although the outcome was not engineered, fortuitously the end result was not catastrophic,” said the report. “What separation that existed was purely fortuitous. The members agreed unanimously that an actual risk of collision had existed.”

According to the report, the RAF Tornado, with two crew on board, had been running low on fuel and had requested a priority landing at RAF Lossiemouth when the near collision happened. The weather at the time was poor with a cloud base of about 800ft.

The report states that when the Tornado crew passed though a break in the clouds on their approach to the runway, they suddenly saw a Swedish Gripen jet passing from left to right across their path about 200 metres ahead – at the same height and in a banked turn away from them.

As they descended below the cloud base, the Gripen was spotted on the plane’s starboard side in formation with a second Gripen which had not been previously seen by either crew member.

Both the Swedish fighters remained level as the Tornado descended, resolving any need for avoiding action to be taken.

But the report reveals that at no time had the positions of the Swedish aircraft been passed to the RAF crew by air traffic controllers at the Moray air base.

“It appears that the ADC [Lossiemouth aerodrome controller] was unable to assimilate the impact of the deteriorating weather on the Gripen flight’s ability to execute the go-around safely, believing that the instruction to go-around ‘made’ the situation safe,” the investigators said.

“Furthermore, the last transmission by the Gripen pilot indicates that they had again crossed through the approach lane for the airfield without communicating their intention to do so.

“Supervision of the situation by both the SUP [Lossiemouth ATC supervisor] and the DAO [duty aircrew officer] was not robust enough to take into account the decreasing weather conditions. This meant that aircraft were unable to gain visual contact with the GR4 on instrument approach.”

They added that the Gripen pilots appeared to have turned across the Tornado’s approach lane.

The Swedish planes were taking part in a Nato exercise, codenamed Joint Warrior. An MoD spokeswoman said: “Sweden is not in Nato but their aircraft do participate in Nato exercises.”