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On January 5, 2025, a report surfaced regarding a near-miss incident involving two private aircraft at Cranfield Airport, operated by Cranfield University. The BBC reported that the aircraft came so close to colliding that one pilot could almost identify the color of the other pilot's t-shirt. This highlights how dangerously close the situation was and underscores the potential severity had an impact occurred.
The United Kingdom's Airprox Board detailed that this incident happened on June 21 of the previous year. A Diamond DA42 Twin Star was practicing a landing when it narrowly avoided a collision with a DeltaJet 500 Stingray due to air traffic control miscommunication. The DeltaJet passed just 100-200 feet beneath the Diamond DA42, but both pilots managed to avert disaster through quick maneuvers.
Questions have been raised about what led to this near-miss and how similar incidents can be prevented in the future. The filed report attributed equal responsibility to both pilots for avoiding the collision but also cited air traffic control as contributing to the near-miss by failing to inform the DeltaJet pilot.
