Airprox Serious incident Uetz U-4M Pelikan HB-TBX, Saturday 4 March 2023

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Date:	Saturday 4 March 2023
Time:
Type:	Uetz U-4M Pelikan
Owner/operator:	Pelikan Club Zürcher Oberland
Registration:	HB-TBX
MSN:	05
Year of manufacture:	1967
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants:
Other fatalities:	0
Aircraft damage:	None
Category:	Serious incident
Location:	Gumen - Switzerland
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Private
Departure airport:	Speck-Fehraltorf Airfield (LSZK)
Destination airport:	Locarno Airport (ZJI/LSZL)
Investigating agency:	STSB
Confidence Rating:	Accident investigation report completed and information captured

Narrative:
On March 4, 2023, at 11:07 AM, the pilot of the registered motor aircraft Pelikan 4UM, with the registration HB-TBX, took off from Speck-Fehraltorf airfield (LSZK) with two passengers on board for a flight over the Alps to Locarno (LSZL). After approximately 20 minutes, the low-wing aircraft flew east past the Glärnisch mountain and, in a gentle climb from the northeast, approached the Bärwaldalp (GL).

The paraglider pilot, flying a Skywalk Arak paraglider, took off from the Gumen mountain station at 1900 m above sea level (ASL) at 11:27 AM, accompanied by another paraglider pilot. After HB-TBX followed the eastern slope of Chnügrat or Seeblengrat at an altitude of around 6200 feet above mean sea level (AMSL) at 11:32 AM, the pilot reported that about a minute later, a paraglider suddenly appeared in his field of view beneath the engine cowling on the right side. At this point, HB-TBX was on a southerly course and approaching the village of Braunwald (GL). The pilot immediately performed an evasive maneuver to the left to avoid the paraglider, during which the Flarm system issued an audible warning. The motor aircraft and the paraglider approached each other at 11:32:50 AM at an altitude of 1890 m above sea level (corresponding to 6200 feet AMSL), with a vertical distance of about 6 meters and a horizontal distance of about 17 meters. No evasive maneuver is evident from the recorded flight data.

At the time of the near-miss, the altitude of the accompanying paraglider pilot was below that of the paraglider pilot involved in the incident.
Both the pilot of HB-TBX and the two paraglider pilots continued their flights without further incident.

Conclusions
The near-collision, in which a powered aircraft and a paraglider came dangerously close to each other, was due to the fact that the pilot of the powered aircraft only saw the paraglider when it was too late for an evasive manoeuvre and the low-wing aircraft subsequently flew over the paraglider within a few metres.

Accident investigation: