Investigators looking into a near-miss involving an RAF Tornado jet found that an airfield where a microlight pilot was about to land was marked in the wrong place on military maps.
The low-flying Tornado barely missed the microlight, which was coming into land at Headon airfield in Nottinghamshire, said the report by Airprox, which investigates such incidents.
The fighter jet had been flying at 483mph as it skimmed just 300ft below the "startled" microlight pilot.
Airprox labelled it a Category A incident, meaning "a serious risk of collision had existed."
It said that if the airfield was marked correctly on the map, the tornado pilot's planned route would have taken him clear of the airfield.
As it was, Headon airfield was marked half a mile away from where it actually was.
Military maps will now be redrawn in light of the incident, which took place in October last year, Airprox said.
The report highlighted that the tornado pilot had left "little margin for error".
He also failed to spot the smaller aircraft despite the jet's state-of-the-art navigation kit.
The report stated: "The Tornado pilot would probably have been better placed to have remained at height until further north due to the myriad of small airfields and avoidances in that particular area.
"Essentially, the Tornado pilot was threading the gap very finely between these airfields and, although his planned routing would have taken him clear of Headon airfield had it been marked on the charts correctly, he had left very little margin for error and would have been wiser to have allowed himself much more room to manoeuvre."
The investigating board said they were "heartened" to hear that military charts are now being amended.
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