US fighter jets flew under parachutists in UK

[toast]

Quote

Two US fighter planes were in danger of colliding with a pair of skydivers in Cambridgeshire after the jets inadvertently flew across a parachuting site, a report has revealed.

A GoPro camera fitted to the helmet of one of the parachutists recorded video of the F-15 fighter jets flying beneath them as they fell at 120mph.

The UK Airprox board, which reports on air proximity events in British airspace, said regulations and procedures were not complied with, and that although the pilots should have been made aware of the skydiving centres as part of their normal briefing routine, they ought to have either questioned air traffic control or avoided the area.

The Guardian

 

 

[+and-then]

I'm happy that this didn't become a tragedy.  

[aztek]

where is the video? i would like to see how far they were, even the board could not determine that, having the video, and logs,  they could be miles away,   

also i have little doubt if it was not american planes, this story would not exist, those evil Americans.  

[Gromdor]

Here's the Airprox report: https://www.airproxboard.org.uk/uploadedFiles/Content/Standard_content/Airprox_report_files/2019/Airprox Report 2019077.pdf

Sounds like it was just a few thousand feet.

[aztek]

what FL100 in altitude line for the F15 means?  they give 12900ft for skydivers, how much lower the plane was?

[Gromdor]

3 hours ago, aztek said:

what FL100 in altitude line for the F15 means?  they give 12900ft for skydivers, how much lower the plane was?

Flight level 100 is 10,000ft.  Each flight level is 100 ft.

[ChrLzs]

Wow.  That's a bit scary to think about, or it would be if I was a parachutist (no way I'd jump out of a plane..).

Love to see the footage!  I note that the report says they didn't use the footage to help determine how far away the aircraft actually were.  I think most GoPro's have a fixed lens.. so with a bit more information it *would* be possible to determine the distance to the aircraft from the video - the size of the planes is known, so a simple bit of trigonometry can be used, if the field of view of the lens is also known...  I'll keep an eye out - if anyone sees the footage anywhere, post a link!