‘Near-miss’ incidents involving private aircraft in the skies of the UK have risen by 60% in just five years, a new report has demonstrated.
BBC research showed that near-misses in the skies are becoming increasingly frequent whereas the number of accidents reported to the Air Accident Investigation Branch has risen from 654 to 708 in four years.
The BBC report notes that pilots told the broadcaster that the accidents were caused by increasingly busy skies.
One pilot, Paul Bazire, told the BBC that pilots from European counties such as Poland and the Czech Republic were using his flight school to deal with the busy skies in the South East of England.
The Civil Aviation Authority maintains that flying in the UK is ‘really safe’, although it does recommend that pilots ft small transceivers to their aircraft to further improve safety.