Plane from Stansted narrowly misses sparkly balloon

The plane had taken off from Runway 22 at Stansted, where the party balloon landed soon afterwards

A plane narrowly avoided hitting a "sparkly" balloon in the shape of a number seven, according to an air safety report.

The incident took place on 3 June after the BE200 aircraft had taken off from Stansted Airport.

The pilot reported that the "elongated silver and sparkly party balloon" just missed its port wing.

The UK Airprox Board said the pilot's account "portrayed a situation where providence had played a major part".

The report said the plane had taken off from Stansted's Runway 22 and was at about 1,000ft (304m) above sea level when the pilot noticed the shaped balloon.

• Plane and glider 'came within 100m of each other'

• Helicopter reports near-miss with fighter jets

• Pilot 'distracted by passenger wanting to fly'

It said there was "no time to react" before "the balloon just missed the port wing, passing slightly underneath".

The crew were later passed a message from Air Traffic Control at Stansted, which said: "Just to let you know the party balloon turned out to be a number seven and landed on the runway just after you departed."

The Airprox Board concluded "the pilot's overall account of the incident portrayed a situation where providence had played a major part in the incident and/or a definite risk of collision had existed".