What happened
On July 26, 2016, at approximately 09:20 UTC, a close encounter occurred in the airspace near the Oberalppass in the canton of Graubünden. The incident involved two aircraft operating under Visual Flight Rules (VFR). The first aircraft, a Luftwaffe EC635 helicopter, registration T-362, had departed from Dübendorf military airfield and was en route to Andermatt. The second aircraft, a private civil aircraft with registration D-EBTM, was also operating in the vicinity.
The encounter took place at an altitude of approximately 7,500 feet, shortly after the helicopter had passed the station of an aerial cableway.
The investigation
The investigation focused on the proximity between the EC635 helicopter and the D-EBTM aircraft. The Swiss Transportation Safety Investigation Board (SUST) examined the flight paths and the circumstances surrounding the near-miss near the cableway station. As this was a preliminary notification, the investigation into the specific details of the encounter is ongoing.