A PASSENGER jet travelling at 161mph took emergency action to avoid crashing into a light aircraft above a village, seconds before missing a microlight plane by 15 metres, it has emerged.

An inquiry by the UK Airprox Board concluded the second incident was among the most serious it examines and it was largely due to luck that there had not been a disaster at 2,000ft above Sheriff Hutton, in North Yorkshire on Thursday, April 16.

The expert panel also found the air traffic controller at nearby RAF Linton on Ouse, south of Thirsk, may have become preoccupied by the shocking first incident between the civilian planes and failed to see the microlight turning 180 degrees, head on into the path of the jet.

It is understood the £625,000 six-seat P68 jet, which is used for commercial charter flights as well as police and military forces globally, had been on a flight from northern Europe and was on course towards Leeds Bradford Airport when the pilot was alerted to aircraft two miles ahead of him.

It remains unclear whether the jet plane was carrying passengers.

Although the jet pilot - who had been given a clearance to descend and fly at 2000ft - could not see the PA28 light aircraft, which had recently taken off from a nearby airfield, he started a clearing turn and saw the PA28 on almost the same heading.

The report states: "Avoiding action was instantly taken, a pitch up and right turn, and the traffic was seen to pass directly underneath, less than 30 metres below."

As the jet pilot, who assessed the risk of collision as "high" and followed air safety protocol by immediately reporting the near miss, he saw a microlight pass 15 metres beneath him, 42 seconds after the first incident at 11.05am.

The experienced pilots flying the two-seater microlight, who had been conducting recovery exercises from unusual attitudes, later claimed not to have seen the jet or even realised the incident had happened.

The inquiry report states the jet pilot doubted whether the microlight pilots could have missed seeing such a large aircraft, especially at such close proximity, but it remained unclear whether the microlight's canopy had obscured the P68 and if the microlight’s engine noise had drowned out the sound of the jet.

The report states: "Members agreed that the situation had stopped just short of a collision, where chance had played a major part in events.

"The lesson for all was that good lookout was something that had to be continuously worked at in order to overcome deficiencies in human performance and potential obscuration."

The board found both the light aircraft and the microlight were not receiving air traffic information, it concluded the P68 pilot had not acted sufficiently on the air traffic information he received.

The PA28 pilot said the jet aircraft was almost overhead when he first sighted it and appeared to have come out of cloud.

While acknowledging that the P68 pilot was required to maintain his course and speed in such circumstances and the PA28 alter its course, the board said his inaction was "ill-conceived" and there was "a fine line between inaction and self-preservation".