Airprox at Marham

[Mike Flynn]

The Eastern Daily Press reporting

Near miss between RAF Marham Tornado and light aircraft - Latest Norfolk and Suffolk News - Eastern Daily Press

An RAF jet was returning to base when it came within 400ft (122m) of a light aircraft taking aerial photos, a report has revealed.
A UK Airprox Board report found the Tornado was descending to RAF Marham when the crew was told by air traffic control a Cessna C150 was two nautical miles east of the airfield.
It decided to climb 1,000ft (305m) above the Cessna to avoid a collision.
As a result there was no risk of a crash, the report said.
The Airprox board, which investigates near misses, found the Cessna's photo mission had been agreed at short notice on 11 May.
As a result, the Tornado crew was unaware of the plane until they contacted RAF Marham air traffic control to join the visual circuit before landing.

source http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-41629586


Could this be the 152 out of Seething that supplies the newspaper with all their great pictures?

[chevvron]

I Airprox near Marham in 1971.
On my QXC routing from Cambridge to Norwich via Ely in a C150, I descended to go below a piece of cloud across my track. As I did so I looked down and saw a pair of Buccaneers pass under me well below and when I came out the other side of the cloud, saw something out of the corner of my left eye. It was a Victor, turning away from me presumably to position downwind for Marham which was about 3nm north (yes I was talking to Marham on RTF but hadn't realised my radio had failed until I tried to call them to report my sighting)

[NorthSouth]

The full report is here.
"Inaccurate Traffic Information from Marham ATC contributed to an erroneous
mental model in the Tornado crew."

[scifi]

Seems strange that the C150 was not told to 'Orbit in present position, landing traffic is Tornado, at 8 miles'.


The number of times I have been asked to orbit in present position started on my very first solo. I had to do many orbits whilst the Baluga landed and back-tracked at Hawarden. I had never done orbits before, so just winged it ! It made my first solo 30 minutes in the log.


With the rate of climb of a Tornado reaching tens of thousand feet per minute, I would think that all the airspace above the approach path should be his alone, in case he wanted a go-around. Why the Cessna was not stopped from crossing the Tornadoes path should have been mentioned as a recommendation in the report.


.

[NorthSouth]

Originally Posted by scifi

I had never done orbits before

Err, Exercise 9, Medium Level Turns; Exercise 14, First Solo. Something missing there. But no-one should be sent first solo if they're likely to be held up or given non-standard clearances by ATC. Someone died at (Southend?) a few years ago when that happened.

As to the clearance etc, it's very different at military airfields where aircraft in the visual circuit are expected to separate themselves from other traffic with often only general information on the whereabouts of that other traffic. And you can have aircraft doing a visual run and break when there's also IFR traffic on the approach.

[scifi]

Hi NS, well yes I had done Ex 9, but that was in open countryside. The Continuous Orbits are different and a bit more difficult, as you are trying to intercept the mid point of the downwind leg each time. I actually drifted away from the downwind leg in the slight crosswind.


As for the Tornado incident, the fact remains, the two aircraft did get within just a few feet of each other. I thought ATC would have invoked their 'Duty of Care' clause, regardless of the fact that it was Class G airspace. Maybe the whole idea of the C150's 'Photo Mission' was to get a close up of a Tornado landing at Marham..?

[Gertrude the Wombat]

Originally Posted by NorthSouth

But no-one should be sent first solo if they're likely to be held up or given non-standard clearances by ATC.

I retrained after 13 years not flying, and on the "first solo" after retraining I got given an orbit on downwind. The controller had first asked my instructor whether he thought I could cope with this, however.

[chevvron]

Originally Posted by NorthSouth

And you can have aircraft doing a visual run and break when there's also IFR traffic on the approach.

During my 'live' training on my PAR course at Shawbury, I was just settling down with a JP on final approach when a second blip appeared on my display, moving much faster and overtaking my aircraft.
My instructor assured me it was traffic positioning for a run and break and was perfectly normal; well it may have been for an RAF controller but even I draw the line somewhere!