Voyager plane reports near crash over Brize Norton in Oxfordshire

Pilots from a huge plane reported a ‘high risk’ near crash over Oxfordshire after their alarm system was triggered by a small aircraft.

A grey Voyager aircraft, which is an RAF air-to-air refuelling tanker that also acts as air transport, was alarmed after spotting an unexpected aircraft when taking off from Brize Norton RAF base on November 9 last year.

The Voyager pilot reported that their collision warning system was triggered by an 'intruder' - another aircraft, a Bulldog - travelling near them. 

READ MORE: Video shows large chunks of roof being blown off RAF Brize Norton hangar

Diagram shows how close two planes were together, with flight paths nearly crossing.

The Bulldog, which is a small two-seat aircraft, was spotted by the Voyager's safety pilot as the plane began to enter a cloud slightly to the northwest.

There was no way to move out of the way if the flight paths were to converge, leading the pilots on board to fear a crash.

The Bulldog passed the plane 200m away.

Meanwhile, in the control room, the Brize Norton zone controller approved the Bulldog’s crossing from Faringdon to Burford and made the necessary calls.

READ MORE: Royal helicopter lands in Blackbird Leys to residents' shock

File photo of RAF Voyager.

A short moment later, as the Bulldog approached the landing and take off zone, the controllers realised the Voyager had started climbing earlier than expected meaning that the two aircraft would pass by close together.

As the Bulldog reported having eyes on the Voyager, it was expected to maintain distance from it, with the controllers from both the base and the tower reporting medium risk.

A full summary of the incident has recently been published, dating to April 2022, with the Voyager pilot, Bulldog pilot and controllers at Brize Norton all disagreeing on how high the level risk had been.

The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) said in the report it was ‘odd’ that the Voyager was cleared to climb through the Bulldog’s cleared level without checking first that the Bulldog had eyes on the plane.

It said information should have been provided to both parties.

It was investigated by two Occurrence Investigators, an Air Traffic Controller and an Air System Operations Manager determining the level of risk as category C, despite the Voyager pilot’s concerns.

This means it was thought that there was no actual risk of collision, or the risk of collision was avoided.

Investigators determined that the reason the Voyager had considered the risk so high was because of the alarm from the TCAS warning system against traffic they weren’t made aware of.

The report stated that the Bulldog pilot calling visual with the Voyager “effectively removed any risk of collision” but safety was “degraded” as the Voyager pilot was cleared to climb through an occupied level.

-

Read more from this author

This story was written by Shosha Adie. 

She joined the team in 2022 as a digital reporter.   

To get in touch with her email: Shosha.Adie@newsquest.co.uk

Follow her on Twitter: @ShoshaAdie

A message from our Editor

Thank you for reading this story and supporting the Oxford Mail.

If you like what we do please consider getting a subscription for the Oxford Mail and in return we’ll give you unrestricted access with less adverts across our website from the latest news, investigations, features, and sport.

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tik Tok for more. 

You can also join the conversation in our Facebook groups: stay ahead of traffic alerts here, keep up to date with the latest from court here, share your favourite memories of Oxford here, get your daily dose of celebrity news here and take some time out with news that will make you smile. 

If you’ve got a story for our reporters, send us your news here. You can also list an event for free here.