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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Lucy Skoulding

Ryanair flight with Brits came 'within seconds' of mid-air collision with private jet

A Ryanair flight packed full of British holidaymakers came "within seconds" of a mid-air crash with a private jet.

The pilot of the flight, from Majorca to the UK's Manchester Airport on May 28, had to swerve off course dramatically after seeing a private jet on its flight path.

Soon after taking off from Palma Airport on the Spanish island, the Boeing 737 came within 100ft of the private jet according to radar tracking.

The minimum vertical distance between commercial flights is supposed to be 1000ft, while planes are supposed to stay three to five miles apart from each other horizontally.

An initial investigation shows that the Ryanair flight was about a mile away from the jet horizontally and a very close 100ft from it vertically.

As the commercial plane had just taken off, it was rushing through the air at about 150mph and continuing to accelerate very quickly.

The Spanish-registered jet had taken off from Son Bonet airfield nearby and was climbing through 1,000ft.

It's believed the two aircraft could have been as close as 20 seconds from crashing into each other.

The Ryanair flight should have either been alerted to the jet, a Cirrus SF50, by onboard warning systems or by air traffic control - but neither did.

Instead the Ryanair crew spotted it from the cockpit and swerved to miss it.

It's believed that passengers on the Majorca flight had no idea about the near miss as both flights landed at their destinations safely.

Pilots are taught to always turn quickly right if they're worried they're too close to another plane.

Spanish aviation chiefs have now launched a full investigation in to the incident to establish exactly how it happened, reports the Daily Mail.

A Ryanair spokesperson said in a statement: "The crew of the fight from Palma to Manchester took immediate action upon identifying a converging light-type aircraft and as result, the aircraft remained well clear and the flight continued to Manchester.

"The event remains under investigation, and we are continuing to liaise with the respective competent authorities in support of the associated processes."

While the investigation will look at the instructions given to the pilots of both planes, it's likely that blame will fall on the shoulders of Spanish air traffic controllers.

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