Ryanair flight with 178 on board was seconds away from crashing into helicopter over Stansted after rookie co-pilot forgot to tell captain he'd switched off the autopilot

A packed passenger plane was just seconds away from disaster when it nearly crashed into a helicopter above Stansted Airport. The Ryanair flight had 178 people on board when a the co-pilot forgot to tell the captain he'd switched off the autopilot - resulting in the near miss. A packed passenger plane came within seconds of crashing into a helicopter above Stansted Airport as the captain didn't realise the autopilot had been turned off, a report today reveals The Ryanair flight was approaching the Essex airport after a two hour flight from Szczecin in Poland and was at 3,000ft when the miscommunication in the cockpit occurred Air accident investigators found the plane was 300ft above the helicopter and 1.7 nautical miles across from it. 'The co-pilot said that this was his first time he had handed over control during manual flight and that he did not know the precise call outs that were stated in the Flight Crew Operating Manual,' it reported. 'The National Air Traffic Services measured the closest point of approach between the two aircraft as 1.7 nautical miles and 300 feet.