BA jets in near-miss

Fresh safety fears were raised today over Britain's new air traffic control centre after two British Airways jets came within seconds of a mid-air crash due to a computer failure.

Nats, the National Air Traffic Services, has launched an investigation into the nearmiss, which happened when a trainee controller told a Boeing 777 bound for Heathrow to descend 8,000 ft - without realising that a 737, also preparing to land, was 3,000 ft below.

An instructor monitoring the trainee on Monday at 8.10am saw a "conflict alert" pressed an override button to send an emergency message to the pilots - but the computer failed to respond.

The trainee then ordered the pilot of the 777, which was coming in from Rio de Janeiro, to stop 1,000 ft above the 737, from Valencia. However, the 777 ended up only 500 ft above the other plane - forcing the trainee to warn the 737 to "take avoiding action".

? British airline services were returning to normal today after two days of travel misery caused by strike action by air traffic controllers on the Continent. A spokesman for Gatwick airport said today: "It has been a nightmare week but things are finally getting back to normal."