from news.bbc.co.uk
The pilots of two passenger jets had to take evasive action when they were involved in a near miss over south-east England, it has been revealed.
BMI British Midland confirmed that two of its planes came within one-and-a-half miles of each other as they flew from Heathrow.
Safety rules state that aircraft should be at least five miles apart.
The near miss is being blamed on a mistake by an aircraft controller at West Drayton.
There were a total of 148 people on board the two planes.
One was travelling to Paris and the other to Brussels when the incident occurred about 20 miles east of Gatwick airport on Tuesday.
It is understood that the pilots of both aircraft took action after receiving warnings from a controller at West Drayton and from their automatic collision avoidance systems.
The airline and National Air Traffic Services have both filed safety reports.
The Civil Aviation Authority will now investigate the incident.