British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association

Incident Reports (Informal)

Incident reports received by the BHPA are available in summary form on this page. If you're looking for reports of formal investigations undertaken in the case of a serious incident, please visit our Incident Reports (formal investigations) page.

Incident reports are available in summary form for the following wing types:

• All Wing Types
• Paraglider
• Flexwing Hang Glider
• Rigid Hang Glider
• Speedrider
• Speedflyer/Miniwing
• Powered PG
• Powered HG
• Other

Incident reports for all wing types are displayed below in summary form.

The BHPA incident reports database is fully searchable. To refine your search you can specify a particular wing type and select "or" or "and". For example, if you want to search for paraglider incidents at Hay Bluff, for best search results select paraglider from the drop down list and the "and" option.

If you want to search by incident date, please enter the day, month and year numerically as dd-mm-yyyy (eg. 03-12-2019).

All Wing Types Paraglider Flexwing Hang Glider Rigid Hang Glider Speedrider Speedflyer/Miniwing Powered PG Powered HG Other

or and

If known, total hours and total flights flown are displayed below together with hours and flights flown in the past six months, the latter being displayed in brackets.

There are 3239 entries for all wing types

Displaying page 28 out of 324

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Date	Pilot	Location	Wing Type	Summary	Injury
Incident Reports
Date 24.09.2022	Pilot Male Age: 68 Rating: P Flying Experience: 27 years 3000 hours (65 hours) 2000 flights (30 flights)	Location Babadag 1700, Olu Deniz, Turkey Wind Strength: 5-10 km/h Conditions: Calm, Moderate Turbulence	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: 777 Queen 2 Launch Type: Foot	Summary Pilot reversed launched and on turning to face forwards encountered a dust devil. Pilot was lifted up and spun round before being dragged across the take-off area.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt
Date 21.09.2022	Pilot Male Age: 64 Rating: AP Flying Experience: 38 years 2000 hours (4 hours) 3000 flights (4 flights)	Location Ager Montsec, Spain Wind Strength: 35-40 km/h Conditions: Strong	Wing Type Flexwing Hang Glider Wing: Wills Wing U2 Launch Type: Foot	Summary The pilot was assisted towards launch by another experienced pilot. A thermal was blowing through and so a third pilot held the left wing wire from behind. Hang check was performed. Pilot lifted the A frame and was assessing conditions when the lower front wires came away from the nose ripping out of the assistants fingers. The pilot and wing were lifted backwards, 2-3 m into the air. The assistant on the left side wire was able to hold on and so the glider slewed around and came down sideways to the wind. The pilot landed on feet. The lower front wires keyhole tang nose catch had somehow disconnected itself.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt
Date 20.09.2022	Pilot Male Age: 40 Rating: P Flying Experience: 9 years 330 hours (30 hours) 700 flights (60 flights)	Location Kronplatz, Italy, Italy Wind Strength: 10-15 km/h Conditions:, Strong Turbulence, Foehn	Wing Type Speedflyer/Miniwing Wing: Swing Mirage RS 2 Launch Type: Foot	Summary Pilot launched with a group, 3 wings in front had good glide, as did the 1 behind. Pilot launched into sinking air and impacted slope heavily.	Injury Pilot: Seriously Injured, Lumbar Spine
Date 20.09.2022	Pilot Male Age: 62 Rating: AP Flying Experience: 44 years 2000 hours (60 hours) 4000 flights (40 flights)	Location Pena Negra, Piedrahita, Spain Wind Strength: 5-10 km/h Conditions: Moderate, Moderate Turbulence	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: Niviuk Artik 4 Launch Type: Foot	Summary While thermalling, pilot noticed left stabilo line had snapped. Having replaced the line pilot noticed that while thermalling to the right, in turbulent conditions, he had a tendency to push the left brake handle forward. This resulted in the brake line and stabilo line rubbing against each other.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt
Date 16.09.2022	Pilot Unknown	Location N/A, N/A, UK	Wing Type Other	Summary During repack, licensed packer noticed that the bridle had been removed from the parachute. The lines were connected directly to a maillon rapide. Problem had not been picked up on two previous repacks.	Injury Unknown
Date 12.09.2022	Pilot Male Age: 57 Rating: CP Flying Experience: 56 hours (5 hours)	Location Levante SE landing field, Algodonales, Spain Wind Strength: 5-10 km/h Conditions: Calm, Moderate Turbulence	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: Axis Pluto 2 Launch Type: Foot	Summary The pilot released big ears and gave two deep hard pumps on both brakes to attempt to clear the ears. The glider entered a stall and the pilot put hands up resulting in an immediate surge forward resulting in frontal collapse and rapid height loss.	Injury Pilot: Seriously Injured
Date 11.09.2022	Pilot Male Age: 70 Rating: CP Flying Experience: 12 years 24 hours (2 hours) 45 flights (5 flights)	Location Plaine Joux, France, France Wind Strength: 0-5 km/h Conditions: Calm, Not Turbulent	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: Advance Epsilon 8 Launch Type: Foot	Summary Pilot took off but had not fastened his leg loops. Pilot steered towards the trees with difficulty. Pilot crashed into trees and fell to the ground.	Injury Pilot: Seriously Injured
Date 11.09.2022	Pilot Female Age: 48 Rating: P Flying Experience: 26 years 70 hours (20 hours) 200 flights (30 flights)	Location Rutland, Rutland, UK Wind Strength: 5-10 km/h Conditions: Calm, Not Turbulent	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: Advance Epsilon 9 Launch Type: Winch/vehicle Tow	Summary Pilot was unable to release Gin tow bridal from winch line as the locking pin was inserted too far into the loop of the three ring circus. With the loop going over the eye of the locking pin. Winch operator cut line and pilot eventually 'S' turned down to land.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt
Date 10.09.2022	Pilot Male Age: 55 Rating: P Flying Experience: 21 years 210 hours (10 hours) 250 flights (30 flights)	Location KittyHawk Aerodrome, West Sussex, UK Wind Strength: 5-10 km/h Conditions: Calm, Light Turbulence	Wing Type Flexwing Hang Glider Wing: Airbourne Sting 3 Launch Type: Aero Tow	Summary Tug suffered engine-out during aerotow. Tug released line to hang glider pilot who was initially unable to make a release due to lack of tension. Pilot held the line in his teeth to create tension and was then able to release the line. Further inspection showed the line caught in the open shackle due to it being aligned in the opposite direction to when being towed.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt
Date 09.09.2022	Pilot Male Age: 63 Rating: P Flying Experience: 41 years 669 hours (8 hours) (19 flights)	Location Llangollen, Llangollen, UK Wind Strength: 30-35 km/h Conditions: Strong, Moderate Turbulence, Thundery	Wing Type Flexwing Hang Glider Wing: Avian Evo3 Launch Type: Foot	Summary Pilot took off in 30 degree crosswind in windy and thermic conditions. Pilot turned left into the wind but encountered turbulent, lifting and sinking air. Pilot was unable to turn right, despite weight shift, before impacting the slope.	Injury Pilot: Seriously Injured, Cervical Spine

Last updated: 5 January 2025

Displaying page 28 out of 324

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A number of incident analysis reports are also available in the safety section of our website. These are compiled from the individual incident reports submitted during the course of each year.

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