Inquiry into airline 'near miss'

The Jetstream had taken off from Durham Tees Valley Airport

An investigation has begun after a passenger plane had to take emergency action to evade military aircraft.

The Eastern Airways Jetstream 41 had left Durham Tees Valley Airport, near Darlington for Aberdeen when the incident with an RAF Tornado occured.

The near-miss took place at around 16,500ft, 20 miles north east of Newcastle on the morning of 1 February.

The UK Airprox Board inquiry will take about seven months to complete and will take statement from pilots involved.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: "There was an air incident on 1 February involving a Tornado F3, which was on a training mission and a civilian Jetstream.

"At no time was either aircraft in danger as the Tornado had a visual reference on the Jetstream throughout the entire incident.

"The incident will be investigated by the UK Airprox Board which is a joint civil and military organisation and they will assess the risk involved and make any safety recommendations should a systematic failure be identified.

Warning system

"Air safety remains of paramount importance to us."

The Airprox Board is made up of officials from the Civil Aviation Authority and the MoD.

A spokesman for Eastern Airways said: "The pilot climbed about 500 or 600ft after the aircraft's warning system detected near-flying planes."

A spokesman for the CAA said: "An aircraft proximity report has been filed involving a Jetstream 41 and military aircraft.

"The JS41 was en-route to Aberdeen Airport and the incident took place at approximately 16,500 feet.

"These investigations can take some time and we will be taking statements from all the pilots involved.

"During 2003 there were 64 Airprox incidents involving commercial air transport and 83% of these were assessed as having no risk of collision."