Plane forced to change course

Aviation authorities have launched an investigation into the incident which happened at 27,000 feet, some 60 miles from Newcastle.

The British Regional Airlines' Embraer 145 was carrying 12 passengers from Oslo to Newcastle when it had to take action when the military jet came to within 600ft of it vertically.

The July 3 incident is the latest in a series over the region in recent years involving military and civil planes, a number of which have led to criticism of RAF procedures.

The near-miss will now be examined by the UK Airprox Board - a joint civil and military body - to assess whether the planes were at serious risk of collision.

The region has some of the most intensive RAF low flying because of the large areas of sparsely populated countryside.

The identity of the military jet was not revealed today and the RAF said it would not comment while an investigation was on going.

Further details will be made public when the UK Airprox Board publishes its next report in the autumn.

That report will also include details of a report about two passenger planes over the North Sea last May, and an incident last February when a British Airways 737 came into conflict with a military jet just eight miles south-east of Newcastle Airport.

A spokesman for British Regional Airlines - recently taken over by British Airways - said today: "The captain of our plane filed an air proximity report after being told to change direction by air traffic control.

"He was told to move because apparently there was a military aircraft in close proximity. There was a 600ft vertical separation between the planes, which is quite a lot."

This incident was made public in the same week that the UK Airprox Board issued its latest report, which said that 85 per cent of "near misses" it investigated in 2000 turned out to have been safe.

Some 103 reports were made during the year, the same number as the year before.

Updated: 16.45 Friday, July 20