US Fighter Jets Narrowly Missed Skydivers

According to a report by the UK Airprox board, which monitors events in British airspace, “The controller believed he would have plenty of time to change the heading of the F-15s when they came on frequency. However, the frequency became busy just as they transferred [from one air traffic control to another] and so by the time the F-15 pilots checked in with the controller they were already about to fly over Chatteris.”

Several skydiving centers are based in the Chatteris airfield, a fact that pilots should have been made aware of.

Although the board was unable to determine exactly how close the jets came to colliding with the skydivers, the incident was still classified in the second-highest danger category. As reported by The Guardian, one of the parachutists was wearing a GoPro camera on their helmet and recorded the jets flying underneath them as they were falling at 120 mph.