Paraglider injured in eight metre fall

[Guest Fred Bear]

February 11, 2007 16:08pm

 

Article from: AAP

 

A PARAGLIDER has suspected spinal and arm injuries after an accident in the NSW central west.

 

A NSW Ambulance Service rescue helicopter has responded to the accident at Manilla, north of Tamworth, after the paraglider fell to the ground from a height of eight metres about 3pm (AEDT) today.

 

Ambulance workers are treating the paraglider at the scene.

 

 

[Guest bateo]

Has anyone heard anymore about this accident.? Am concerned as I have met few pilots who fly there.

 

 

[Guest Fred Bear]

Not sure Sam.

 

 

[Ben Longden]

Was'nt there a report on the TV news about two paragliders who decided to take on a Cb, with one dead and the other with frostbite after cruising to Fl30??

 

We were talking about it at lunch today at the Aero Club (memo to all; Shepp Aero Club saturday lunches from 12.30..) and couldnt find the bit in the flight manuals that suggests Cb and aviation go well together..

 

Ben

 

 

[Guest Fred Bear]

Yep, that's gonna hurt! :yuk:

 

 

 

[maxamos]

The second incident mentioned in this thread was well covered in the newspapers, but I haven't found any mention about the first. Godrey Wieness is hosting the Paragliding World Championships at his site at Manilla, outside Tamworth NSW. First time that the paragliding world champs has been hosted in an English speaking country, let alone Australia. At the moment there are a lot of paragliders up there doing pre competition training, and this is where the second incident occured.

 

There were about 100 pilots in the air on the day that it happened, (from what I read) and they were warned about the building storm systems at the pre flight briefing. Both the pilots that were caught up in the system were very experienced para gliders and I believe that the woman is the German womens champion. Incredible that she survived, but it doesn't sound like her survival was anything to do with skill as she passed out and came to over an hour later, with frostbiten ears.

 

If she wasn't wearing a flight computer (recorder) no one would really have known what happened. Apparently the coroner was going to look at the flight computer of the deceased chinese pilot, but from what I read they hadn't confirmed the cause of death, but speculating about hypoxia or hypothermia.

 

Regards Kirk.

 

 

[Ben Longden]

Somehow, the Darwin Awards comes to mind here.....

 

Ben

 

 

[Ben Longden]

This just gets 'better'......

 

Ben

 

From The Sun.

 

February 20, 2007 03:35pm

 

Article from: AAP

 

A CHINESE paraglider found dead after being sucked into a storm cell over northern NSW was struck by lightning.

 

Police say Beijing man Zhongpin He, 42, disappeared last Wednesday while paragliding near Manilla ahead of this week's Paragliding World Championships.

 

After an extensive air and ground search, his body was found the following day about 75km from his launch site.

 

Police revealed today that the preliminary results of a post-mortem examination showed Mr He had been struck by lightning.

 

Mr He was a member of the Chinese national paragliding team, with 10 years' experience.

 

Another competitor sucked into the same storm cell was lucky to survive after being pounded by hail in freezing temperatures.

 

German woman Ewa Wisnierska, 35, lost consciousness for more than 40 minutes after being catapulted by the storm cell to a height of about 9946m, before eventually dropping to a lower altitude.

 

 

[Yenn]

Those CB's are dangerous. If I remember right they sucked up several parachutists years ago when they were practicing for the commonwealth games in Brisbane. they survived I think but had a hell of a fright.

 

Ian Borg

 

 

[Guest Fred Bear]

That lady is very lucky. I think she should buy several lottery tickets! :confused: