Princess Anne, Britain’s princess royal and daughter of the Queen, was involved in an “air-proximity incident” as she flew from England to Scotland on Thursday, air authorities said.
A spokesman for the National Air Traffic Services (NATS) said her plane suffered “a loss of separation” over Morecambe Bay, northern England — meaning that it came too close to another jet.
The princess was flying in a seven-seater Royal Air Force jet while the other plane was a fighter on a training mission from its base in Lancashire.
The spokesman said air traffic controllers noticed the fighter jet veering towards the flight path of the princess’s jet and told the pilot of the royal plane to take avoidance action.
The pilot flew lower and the two jets remained several miles apart.
The incident came eight months after the princess’s brother, heir to the throne Prince Charles, was involved in a similar scare while flying to Spain for a memorial service for victims of the Madrid train bombings.
Princess Anne, 54, is the second-born child of Queen Elizabeth but, as a woman, has little chance of inheriting the throne.
