RAF Hawk jets in 100ft near miss with mystery plane over North Wales
Investigators found that the jets passed 150ft above the two-seater civilian plane, and 100ft to the side of it, with the risk of a collision described as "medium". No-one was hurt.
A report by the UK Airprox (Air proximity) Board UKAB said the incident took place on January 30 at 3.35pm. It said the two Hawks had been flying westwards over the A5 area near Bethesda. Get the best island stories from our Anglesey newsletter - sent every Friday
They climbed to 2,000ft and were told there was a "non-cooperating aircraft" nearby - which was "non-squawking" and "non-talking" on the radio - near the Menai Strait. The UKAB said it is recommended that they climbed from their 2,000ft altitude to 2,500ft but on this occasion it wasn't possible due to low cloud.
The Hawk pilots turned gently south to try to spot the civilian C-42 plane which they did. It was ahead of them, two miles away and passing right to left, the UKAB reported.
The Hawk pilots decided to fly over and ahead of it. There is no information about who was flying the civilian aircraft. The UKAB found: "Crew recollection estimated a height separation of approximately 150ft and lateral separation of approximately 100ft.
"During the in-brief, ATC, (air traffic control) who were aware of the incident, and the Executive Flying Supervisor were informed of the Airprox. Furthermore, ATC contacted Caernarfon Aerodrome and enquired as to who was operating the aircraft in question. Information received from Caernarfon indicated that the aircraft was not local to Caernarfon."
The UKAB noted there was a cloudbase of about 2,200ft and that the civilian pilot was apparently not using their fitted transponder, nor speaking to Valley air traffic control.
Nor had three-way communications taken place between that pilot, Valley ATC and Caernarfon ATC. The UKAB found: "It is likely that if even one of the above was different, the (incident) would have been more distant and the probability of a collision reduced substantially further.
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