Rebecca Hubbard
Posted: Thursday, September 9, 2010 9:34 am

A report has claimed that a business jet and passenger plane came close to a mid-air collision in July.

The passenger plane was a Turkish Airlines Boeing 777, and was heading towards London Heathrow airport with 232 people on board. The business jet, a Citation 525, had taken off from London City Airport.

The near-miss over London has been described as a "serious incident" by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB).

The business jet was about 100ft to 200ft below and half a mile away from the passenger plane at the time of the incident, which happened on the 27th July 2009.

According to the report, London City Airport's control tower had cleared the German-owned business jet to climb to 3,000ft but when the flight crew acknowledged the instruction, they said they would be climbing to 4,000ft.

This "readback" mistake from the jet was then not noticed by the controller at the tower, the AAIB said.