100 feet from a mid-air disaster.

Byline: By Graeme Whitfield 

The RAF has been heavily criticised after a fighter jet came within 100ft of crashing into a passenger plane with 80 North-East passengers on board.

Aviation officials have described the incident - which saw an RAF Jaguar climb steeply into cloud and almost hit a Brussels to Newcastle flight - as "one of the most serious airprox (near misses) they had seen".

The UK Airprox Board, the body which investigates near misses in UK airspace, has ordered Ministry of Defence officials to warn its pilots about the dangers caused by the pilot's manoeuvre.

But the incident has raised fresh questions about the safety of military flying over the North-East, coming after a long line of crashes and near misses involving RAF planes in the region.

The MoD admitted the incident had been a serious breach of flying rules, and said it had warned all of its pilots not to repeat the incident.

But last night Peter Hillman, Northumberland's representative on the Inter Authority Working Group on Low Flying, said: "From our point of view, it's pleasing to see that they at least recognise the seriousness of such an incident.

"However, we would rather these incidents didn't happen in the first place and our work with the RAF and the MoD is aiming to make that happen."

The incident, on July 2, last year came when three Jaguars from RAF Coltishall, in Norfolk, were carrying out a simulated attack over the North Sea.

When one of the Jaguars climbed into cloud, its pilot decided against contacting Newcastle air traffic control and it came within 100ft of hitting a Sabina plane carrying 80 passengers from Brussels to Newcastle.

The Airprox Board report criticised the RAF pilot for relying on the "big sky" theory - that the airspace is so big that crashes between planes are highly unlikely - and classified it as having the most serious risk of collision.

Its report said: "The board agreed that this incident was one of the most serious airprox they had seen.

"In similar fashion, the Strike Command representative re-stated how seriously this incident had been treated and said that a robust directive had been sent to all fast jet pilots in the command to ensure that a similar occurrence could not happen again.

"Additionally, a draft amendment to military flying regulations had been raised.

"There was unanimous agreement that the Newcastle controller had been faced with a very difficult situation and had done everything he could in the circumstances."

An RAF spokesman said: "We recognise it was a serious incident and we have followed it through with a thorough review of the relevant flying regulations and made some amendments where appropriate.

"There was a large educational programme afterwards throughout the RAF about the need to stick to the flying rules."

Paul Norris of Newcastle Airport said: "It was a concern but we do sit down with the MoD every six months and discuss these types of incidents and what can be done to prevent them happening in the future."