A paraglider and a plane avoided a collision due to "luck more than judgement" when their flight paths almost converged near Glencoe, the paragliding body claims.
A Cessna 152 aircraft was flying east along the mountain resort on August 25, 2021 when the pilot spotted the paraglider at a similar height.
The incident took place shortly after 6pm with the paraglider stating they heard the aircraft before seeing it.
In an Airprox report, the paraglider claimed to only have noticed the aircraft mere seconds before it crossed in front of them.
They claim that despite good visibility a low, strong sun made it difficult to see to the west.
READ MORE: Glasgow Airport Saab 340 in high-risk near-miss with drone while landing
The British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association (BHPA) described the distance between the two aircraft as "worryingly small".
Commenting on the incident during the Airprox investigation the body said: "The paraglider pilot was using their hearing and eyesight to eventually spot the Cessna, but with the amount of time left (3secs) until a potential mid-air collision, and a paraglider's limited speed and manoeuvrability, they were acutely aware that they would probably not have been able to prevent a collision."
It added that the limited time of around three second would have impaired the paraglider's ability to prevent a collision.
However, the aircraft pilot deemed the risk of collision as low despite the paraglider indicating they thought it was high.
The Airprox report noted that the Cessna pilot could not provide a GPS log file leaving the board with no data on the aircraft's position.
Ultimately, since the pilot was able to see the paraglider and due to the "superior manoeuvrability of the C152", the report did not believe there was a risk of collision.
Nevertheless, it was agreed the safety of those involved was compromised by the incident.
"Considering the superior manoeuvrability of the C152 and the pilot reporting being visual with the paraglider, the Board concluded that there had been no risk of collision but that safety had been reduced," the report reads.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here