Rugby heartthrob Jonny Wilkinson and his team mates narrowly missed being involved in a mid-air collision during a flight to Barcelona on Thursday.

Newcastle Falcons' players and management were on board the EasyJet flight when they say they came so close to another plane they could see the passengers on the other aircraft.

Falcons' coach and former England captain Rob Andrew and club owner Dave Thompson witnessed the lot as they headed to their Heineken Cup game in France.

Andrew and Thompson were sitting at the front of the plane when they claim to have seen the other passenger aircraft cross their flight path. And the former England hero couldn't believe his eyes when he claims the

other plane came so close that he saw the passengers through the windows.

The Falcons' team, including England star Jonny, were on board the easyJet 6401 flight, which took off from Newcastle at 9.40am yesterday and arrived at 12.45pm European time at Barcelona.

But the Falcons' bosses didn't reveal their horror story until they got to their hotel across the boarder in France where they were preparing to take on Perpignan in the Heineken Cup game.

Rob Andrew said: "The other plane was a big passenger one and it was so close I could see the heads of the individual passengers through its cabin windows.

"How the two planes missed I'll never know, but it confirms my belief in the destiny of this club.

"I think Dave and I were the only two passengers to see what happened and the last thing we wanted to do was make a fuss and cause a panic, which would have been the worst possible thing we could have done in the circumstances."

Dave Thompson, talking from his hotel in France, said: "We're lucky to be here after the near miss we had on the flight coming over.

"I was sitting up near the front of the plane on the left-hand side with Rob when I looked out of the window and saw another plane flying across our flight path from the left.

"It wasn't a case of the other plane being miles away as is often the case, as it was alarmingly close and I was certain we were going to hit, although neither plane took any evasive action.

"Fortunately, we missed and I turned to Rob and asked if he had seen that and he replied 'Yes, but I don't really believe it."

Bill Lapsley, Newcastle Airport duty manager, said: "Newcastle air traffic control have no knowledge of a near miss, but if there was a near miss it would between the air craft crew and the air traffic control who were in control of that space at the time - who then file a report to the Civil Aviation Authority to carry out an investigation."

Sarah Pritchett, a spokeswoman for easyJet, said: "We have no record of an incident happening yesterday in the Newbury area. It could be that in this area there is a lot of air traffic from Heathrow and a lot of activity going on.

However, the planes are flying within the legal limit. If there had have been an incident it would have been reported to the CAA."

Donna Casey, a spokeswoman for the National Air Traffic Services, which controls all aircraft within UK airspace, said: "There was no report of an incident in the Newbury area yesterday.

"Aircraft have to be separated by 1,000ft vertically and three miles in front or behind another aircraft.

"It is often difficult for passengers to judge how close a plane is when they are up in the air."

Zoe Beaney, spokeswoman for the Civil Aviation Authority, said: "There has not been a file reported about an incident of this nature to us. However, the pilot or controllers have up to 96 hours to file such a report."