A PILOT in the RAF had to turn his plane to avoid a helicopter after an air traffic controller was distracted by the Red Arrows, an investigation has revealed.

The grey RAF Voyager and the SK76 helicopter suffered the near-miss after a RAF Brize Norton controller was concentrating on other things.

An Airprox investigation into the incident on June 5 said the Voyager pilot had to make an “avoiding turn to the left” after spotting the white and blue helicopter.

It came after the controller, who was monitoring the Red Arrows departing from Fairford, failed to tell the Voyager pilot about the other aircraft.

A report into the near-miss said the controller was also “experiencing a high workload”.

A Brize Norton senior air traffic controller said in the report that the incident was due to an “inappropriate allocation of attention and poor concentration”.

The senior controller added: “Once the controller had taken control of the aircraft, it would have been expected that their full concentration would be afforded to that traffic”.

While the helicopter pilot had received traffic information from Oxford Radar, lack of information provided to the Voyager pilot “generated unnecessary concern”.

The report added that: “Both pilots shared an equal responsibility to avoid collision and not to fly into such proximity as to create a danger of collision.”

 

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