London - A British Airways pilot approaching Amsterdam airport felt "as if I had been kicked in the chest" and was burned after being struck by lightning during a passenger flight, said an air accident report on Tuesday.
The pilot, a first officer, handed over the controls of the Boeing 757 to his captain after the incident, which happened on October 10 last year, said the report by the air accidents investigation branch.
The pilot had his right arm resting close to the forward windscreen in the cockpit when the aircraft, which was carrying nine crew and 151 passengers, was struck by lightning just below the right windscreen at a height of about 1 500m.
He was "aware of a loud bang and a bright flash" and then found difficulty in using his right arm, said the report.
A medical examination later revealed "a burn wound in his chest consistent with an electrical discharge".
The pilot returned to flying duties two weeks later, but has since developed an undisclosed medical condition attributed to the incident.
The AAIB report also detailed a near crash between a military Tornado aircraft and a small passenger aircraft near Newcastle on March 20 last year.
The Tornado, flying at high speed, came within 30m vertically and 90m horizontally of a Gill Airways' Shorts SD360 travelling from Aberdeen and carrying 11 passengers as it descended to land at Newcastle.
The Tornado was travelling so fast that neither pilot had time to take any avoiding action, and neither saw the other aircraft until the near miss had occurred.
The Tornado was one of four based at St Andrews, Scotland, which were taking part in a night training exercise involving 32 fast jets.
The AAIB report said information issued by the flight controller regarding the Tornado was "ineffective" because the Tornado was flying at 450 knots and and its manoeuvres were unpredictable.
The report said statistics from the British Airprox Board, which investigates near crashes, showed that from January 1990 to March 2000, there were 87 reports of these involving military aircraft and commercial planes in uncontrolled airspace below 3 000m.
Of these, four were of the category A variety in which there was a real risk of a collision.
The AAIB recommended the Civil Aviation Authority and the ministry of defence should look at the question of safety within uncontrolled airspace.
Other incidents detailed revealed that a Britannia Airways Boeing 757 carrying 234 passengers and a United States Air Force F15 fighter came within 30m of each other in November last year over Northamptonshire.
Two passenger jets were just 10 seconds from disaster when they came within 180m of each other over London last August.
During the same period, three balloonists escaped unhurt when their balloon was sent plummeting by air turbulence from an A300 Airbus landing at Bristol airport.
At Heathrow airport in April last year a Boeing 747 jumbojet was 60m from landing when air traffic controllers realised an Airbus was beginning its take-off run.
A tiny microlight plane forced a transatlantic passenger jet to take evasive action when it flew in front of it. The aircraft came within 30m of each other over Manchester in February last year.
French air-traffic controllers who handle the busy flight route between Britain and Spain registered 40 near crashes in this area in 1998, rising to about 80 a year later. - Sapa-DPA