Ex-pilot’s shock at Tornado ‘near miss’ with paraglider

A FORMER pilot has been left stunned after a “near miss” between a paraglider and a military jet.
Two Tornado fighters were flying over Romaldkirk last Wednesday afternoon (May 31) when pilot of 40 years Tom Vlaming saw one of the jets come “less than 100ft” from one of a pair of free roaming paragliders.
“It was really shocking to see that,” said Mr Vlaming.
“I’ve seen these guys frequently – a couple of years before there was a lot more training going on.
“If I look at the position of the house there the paraglider was on a course of 140 degrees and the jet was going at 230 degrees – they were more or less crossing each other.”
Mr Vlaming, 71, flew for KLM, Fokker and UPS clocking up more than 20,000 hours in commercial cockpits.
Looking up from his back garden at 3.30pm he estimated the jet was travelling at about 360 to 370 aeronautical knots – about 510 miles an hour. He added: “I have had intercepts in my career but nothing like this – it could have been disastrous.
“Taking an evasive manoeuvre, you have got to be pretty good at that speed. We are really sat on top of active airspace.
“I’ve landed at Newcastle quite often and you have to descend pretty rapidly – the airspace is controlled by the military and it’s an active area.”
The sky above Teesdale is “Class G airspace” meaning it is used by both military and civilian aircraft.
However, use of a radio or transponder isn’t always required in Class G areas and military airmen are trained to use “see and avoid” tactics.
An RAF spokesman said: “It’s like if you went into the park with a football – it’s up to you to make sure you don’t other hit people in the park.
“That’s the basis of ‘see and avoid’.”
Any near misses, be they through commercial, private or military flights, are compiled on a list of air proximity reports in the public domain.
The RAF spokesman said he had not been made aware of any proximity report yet but added that it would take up to a month for any incident to come through the system.
When it came to the “near miss” he explained that a view from the ground could sometimes fool the eye.
“It’s difficult to say – perspective can be a strange thing,” he said. “In terms of right now there is minimal information available.”
In the meantime, he added that due process would play out and any near miss would be recorded in next month's air proximity report.
More information can be found at www.airproxboard.org.uk.