BEIJING, April 20 (Xinhuanet) -- The number of aircraft near-misses in British skies rose last year to its highest level for 12 years as the controllers' union complained about having to to work overtime, Times Online said on Wednesday.

    More than half the incidents involved mistakes by air traffic controllers, who handled a record 2.2 million flights in the last 12 months, up from 1.5 million a decade ago, according to the report.

    The UK Airprox Board, the panel of civilian and military pilots and controllers that probe into near-misses, reported that the most frequent cause was "poor judgment" by controllers. The second most frequent cause was "confusion or poor co-ordination" by controllers. 

    An error by a controller was blamed for the most recent air crash in Europe, which killed 71 people in 2002. The controller was later stabbed to death by a Russian man who lost his wife, daughter and son in the disaster.

    The British National Air Traffic Services (Nats) said that it was introducing two new systems for its controllers to improve aviation safety.

    David Luxton, the national secretary of Prospect, the controllers' union, was quoted by Times Online as saying: "The situation has improved, but controllers are still having to do overtime to make up for the shortages and the pressure on them is high." Nats was still 35 controllers short of its full complement, he said.   Enditem