INVESTIGATORS have found that two aircraft had a near miss in the skies over Herefordshire after one pilot became confused about where he was.

The UK Airprox Board, which aims to enhance air safety, investigated a Ikarus C42 microlight and Tecnam Sierra plane flying in close proximity to each other over Shobdon Airfield, near Leominster.

The C42 pilot was training with a student performing touch-and-go landings but at 400ft after taking off they saw the Tecnam turning left directly towards them at around 600ft.

The pilot told the flight information service officer at Shobdon: "I have visual, the aircraft is coming towards us."

They briefly took control of the C42 and turned right 20 degrees to avoid a potential collision.

After they landed, the other pilot came over to "apologise for their confusion".

They claimed it was their first time at Shobdon and they got disorientated.

"The other pilot was clearly embarrassed at their mistake and offered to reimburse the student's lesson fee," the report said, adding that the pilot thought the risk of crashing was high.

The Tecnam pilot, who said the risk of crashing was only medium, was distracted when the ground was higher than they were expecting as it was their first time landing at Shobdon.

The distraction led them to spot the airfield late and go further west than they were meant to.

After spotting the C42, the pilot immediately turned to the right and head to the south and then rejoined the overhead circuit to land. They then apologised over the radio for being disorientated.

The report said: "The Tecnam pilot opined that incident was caused primarily by their own loss of situational awareness and their cognitive failure on the approach to the ATZ (aerodrome traffic zone)."

The Airprox board said it was appreciative of the Tecnam pilot’s frank and honest report which highlighted how human factors played an important role when mistakes were made.

But they said to mitigate against such mistakes pilots should aim to plan thoroughly prior to any flight, but especially when flying to an unfamiliar airfield

The board agreed that there a "risk of collision" during the incident at 12.22pm on September 15, 2021, where safety had not been assured. A risk rating of B was given, the second of five.