Paramotor and glider teaching student almost crash into each other

A paramotor and a glider teaching a student came within metres of a mid-flight collision. The near miss happened on June 7, with both aircraft flying at around 1,500ft over Pulborough in West Sussex. The details are revealed in a report by UK Airprox Board (UKAB), which classified the incident as Category A, the highest risk category, meaning there was a "serious risk of collision".

Neither pilot was aware of the other's presence until the very last moment. According to the report, the paramotor pilot was flying straight and level when they noticed a glider shadow on the ground approaching fast from the northwest. They looked up and suddenly saw the glider banking hard to the right as it took avoiding action, and estimated that there was only 20ft between the two aircraft.



The paramotor pilot said they had no time to take any avoiding action. READ MORE: Light aircraft planes almost crashed over Brighton A DG505 glider, the type involved in the near miss (Image: StromBer, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons) The glider pilot was conducting an introductory flight lesson to a student when they saw the red paramotor canopy dead ahead at the same altitude, heading in the opposite direction.

The glider pilot reported making a hard right turn to avoid collision, estimating the distance between the aircraft to be less than 30ft. Both pilots assessed the risk of collision as "high". In the report, the British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association expressed its relief that the incident "did not result in a tragedy", noting that the aircraft "passed each other extremely closely, with neither pilot having any warning of the other's presence".

The British Gliding Association added that a collision was only avoided "at the last possible moment". UKAB agreed that there had been a risk of collision and said that the separation was such that safety had been reduced to the "bare minimum". They concluded that neither pilot had seen the other aircraft in time to take avoiding action that materially increased the separation.

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