Witnesses saw a twin-engined jet and a twin-prop aeroplane appear to pass within a few hundred feet of each other over the skies of Orrell and Kitt Green.

It is not uncommon to see planes' paths cross but they usually do it safely by being at completely different altitudes.
But the Wigan witnesses and the photographer who snatched these pictures moments after the craft had passed each other say that they looked to be at almost the same height.

Yet local airports and regulators say they have not received any information from pilots of air traffic control about a "loss of separation" last Friday just before 5pm.

A Kitt Green resident, who did not wish to be identified, said: "I know there are times when it looks like planes are going to hit but they're actually at totally different heights.

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"But on this occasion it looked very close indeed. They both seemed to be coming from the west and then they seemed almost to collide.
"They banked round and headed off back and you could see from behind as they disappeared that the altitude was very similar."

Neither Manchester nor Liverpool John Lennon Airports said they had received reports of any near misses and this was confirmed by a spokesman for National Air Traffic.

He said: "We have not been informed of any loss of separation between aircraft at such a time and location. It might look close from the ground but in fact they were a safe enough distance apart."

A spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority said that the rules governing the separation of aircraft varied as to how close to the airport they might be.

But generally speaking alarm bells ring if craft are less than five miles apart horizontally and between 500ft and 1,000 apart vertically.