Mid-air collision kills five after traffic controllers 'misunderstand' training exercise
Stock photo, Coventry Airport: Getty
Five people were killed in a 122mph mid-air collision after air traffic controllers misunderstood that planes would be carrying out a fast low-flying exercise, a court heard this week.
Pilot Brian Normington, 70, was killed when his kit-built Rand KR-2 one-seater aircraft crashed into a twin-engine Cessna 402C plane 700ft above Coventry Airport on 17 August, 2008.
The Cessna's pilot Sophie Hastings, 28, and her three colleagues, John 'Harvey' Antrobus, 28, James Beagley, 34, and Sybille Gautrey, 33, also died, according to the report in the Telegraph.
A jury at Leamington Justice Centre heard the Cessna, which belonged to aerial survey company Reconnaissance Ventures Ltd (RVL), was conducting a routine flight at the time.
The night before the crash the company told air traffic controllers they would be flying at high speed into the airport as part of an exercise to train pilots how to land in bad weather.
The training requires pilots to fly at 122mph towards the runway before suddenly pulling up at 50ft and flying away.
But controllers failed to understand that the terminology for the exercise - ILS calibration work - meant the plane would be flying at low levels into the airport.
Geraint Herbert, a senior inspector at the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB), said: "Air traffic control was unaware of the nature of G-EYES (the Cessna's) flight.
"The company told air traffic control the night before they were going to be doing ILS calibration work but the person who took the message didn't know what that meant.
"They ticked the box 'Instrument Rating Training' which would mean it would be likely to be flying normal speeds.
"The full implication of G-EYES fast speed was not considered."
Mr Herbert said radar controllers at Coventry Airport told Mr Normington to change his flight path when they realised the two planes were set to hit each other.
But they crashed seconds after air traffic control informed the Cessna about Mr Normington's altered plans.
Air traffic controllers reportedly failed to tell Mr Normington where the Cessna was in relation to his own aircraft.
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