Sheer luck prevented an air disaster over an RAF airbase after an “over-loaded” air traffic tower allowed a civilian aircraft to fly over the base as a fast jet came into land.
The Hawk T1 flew within 100ft of a fisheries protection aircraft after the plane was given permission to cross the RAF Valley airspace before the early morning incident last July 1.
An enquiry into the near-miss said luck played a major part in preventing a crash and concluded that the air traffic controller had been unable to cope under the high workload.
The Civil Aviation Authority's Airprox Board (UKAB) said it provided a warning about running base watches “light”.
RAF Valley, Anglesey, has now taken steps to change staffing procedures to reduce the chance of this ever happening again.
The board said: “Missed responses coupled with the additional workload of operating ground at the start of the flying day suggested to the board that tower was overloaded.”
They found that neither a ground controller or qualified radar controller was available in the unit until 8am, half an hour after this incident. This has now been changed at the airbase.
It added: “This Airprox provides a salutary lesson for all SATCOs, their deputies and air traffic control supervisors at busy flying units to guard against the perils of running the watch “light” at period that might reasonably have been foreseen to be busy.”