This is an excerpt from a report made to the Aviation Safety Reporting System. The narrative is written by the pilot, rather than FAA or NTSB officials. To maintain anonymity, many details, such as aircraft model or airport, are often scrubbed from the reports.
Shortly after departing ZZZ, just past [a reporting point], tower pointed out traffic.
I spotted an inbound aircraft about a half-mile away that I thought was the traffic and called it in sight and tower told me to switch to CTAF.
About 30 seconds after that I saw the plane, which I assume was the aircraft they actually meant to point out to me, at the very last second just as it went under my aircraft.
The weather was clear and not a factor, however the light colored plane must have blended in with the snow-covered mountains in the background.
I pulled up to avoid the aircraft and had what I believed was a very near miss.
We continued to our destination without further issue and spent the night at a remote hotel without signal.
The next afternoon when we returned to ZZZ, tower gave me a phone number after landing. When I called in the controller explained that the other aircraft actually reported it as a strike and that after inspecting their plane he found a tire mark on the top of his wing.
At this time I have not been able to find out the pilots name, aircraft tail-number, or type. There was no damage whatsoever to the aircraft I was flying.
Primary Problem: Human Factors
ACN: 1836833
Confused, pilot was talking to tower, tower then advised pilot to switch to ctaf?? Ctaf is normally for non towered airports or for when tower is not operating. On return tower gives him a number to call. So on departure he is advised by tower to switch to ctaf but on return he is talking to tower. Did the pilot mean to say contact departure?, Center? I am supposing tower in class D airspace (no radar) but not very good visual acquisition by tower regarding traffic proximity. Overall, Murphy was napping that day.