British Jetliner and RAF Plane Have Close Call

A British Airways jetliner bound for Los Angeles flew within 3,000 feet of a British air force cargo plane over England, an airline spokesman said Friday.

The incident occurred Wednesday over the city of Carlisle, but spokesman Allan Solloway said it did not qualify officially as a near-miss because “there was no risk of collision.”

He said the Boeing 747 and the Royal Air Force Hercules turboprop transport “were flying parallel in the same direction, and our pilot had his eye on the Hercules all the time.”

The Independent, a London daily, said 300 lives were at risk on the 747, Flight 238, which took off from London’s Heathrow Airport. It quoted the pilot as telling air traffic controllers that as he climbed through 26,000 feet, he had a “windscreen full of Hercules.”

Solloway said that “because there was no risk, it was optional for our pilot to report it, but he did so,” he said.

The spokesman said regulations require at least three miles horizontally and 1,000 feet vertically between two flying aircraft.

He said that when the 747 pilot overtook the slower Hercules and reported seeing it about 3,000 feet to the left, controllers ordered him to turn to the right, “a simple maneuver.”