A plane carrying the Prince of Wales was nearly involved in a mid-air collision during a flight to Spain, it has been revealed.
The military aircraft in which the Prince was travelling on March 24 was involved in a near-miss with a London-bound Airbus A321 carrying up to 186 passengers. The scare occurred at around 8:30am, about 11,500ft above the town of Newbury.
Though the National Air Traffic Service says that at no point was the safety of either plane compromised, both pilots filed reports about the incident. An investigation has been launched to establish whether there was a risk of the two jets colliding.
Prince Charles, who was on his way to Madrid for a memorial service in honour of the victims of the March 11 bomb attacks, apparently did not realise what had occurred until much later.
A spokesperson from Clarence House acknowledged: "All we are saying is that passengers were informed of the incident afterwards, but they weren't actually aware of it while the flight was taking place." A representative from the Ministry of Defence confirmed the near-miss incident, but would not verify which specific aircraft were involved.
Photo: © Alphapress.com
