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 3234 entries for all wing types

Displaying page 29 out of 324

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Date	Pilot	Location	Wing Type	Summary	Injury
Incident Reports
Date 25.08.2022	Pilot Male Age: 52 Rating: P Flying Experience: 37 years 400 hours (40 hours) 1000 flights (60 flights)	Location Forclaz, Annecy, France Wind Strength: 5-10 km/h Conditions: Calm, Moderate Turbulence	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: Ozone Alpina 3 Launch Type: Foot	Summary Pilot launched with leg strap undone. The other strap was a step through one. Bracing strap and chest strap were done up. Pilot shocked to notice undone strap just after take off but was unable to fasten in-flight. Pilot landed safely.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt
Date 21.08.2022	Pilot Male Age: 54 Rating: CP Flying Experience: 2 years 9 hours (9 hours) 54 flights (54 flights)	Location Mount Caburn, Lewis, UK Wind Strength: 20-25 km/h Conditions: Calm, Moderate Turbulence	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: Mojo 6 Launch Type: Foot	Summary Pilot continued to scratch on slope despite descending and got too low to make the landing field. Pilot made low turn to try and get into wind but failed to do so and landed heavily.	Injury Pilot: Minor Injuries
Date 14.08.2022	Pilot Male Age: 57 Rating: P Flying Experience: 5 years 420 hours (130 hours) 380 flights (120 flights)	Location Malverns - kettle Sings, Malvern, UK Wind Strength: 5-10 km/h Conditions: Strong, Strong Turbulence	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: Ozone Delta 4 Launch Type: Foot	Summary Pilot encountered severe lee side turbulence while thermalling in a bowl close to launch. Glider suffered a series of asymmetric collapses resulting in a cravat. Pilot deployed parachute at low level, which opened quickly. Pilot touched down safely.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt
Date 12.08.2022	Pilot Male Age: 55 Rating: P Flying Experience: 32 years 700 hours (22 hours) 1700 flights (40 flights)	Location Parlick, UK Wind Strength: 20-25 km/h Conditions: Calm, Moderate Turbulence	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: Advance Epsilon 7 Launch Type: Foot	Summary PG pilots were flying in close proximity to a sailplane. The view of the pilots was that the sailplane was coming too close. Later discussion with the sailplane pilot resulted in a better understanding by all parties, and a sailplane flight for one of the PG pilots!	Injury Pilot: Unhurt
Date 09.08.2022	Pilot Male Age: 54 Rating: Unqualified	Location New Church Farm, Tong, Bradford, UK Wind Strength: 5-10 km/h	Wing Type Powered PG Wing: BGD Luna 2	Summary The incident occurred when the pilot's paraglider was induced into a turn by the ingestion of the left-hand control line into the turning propeller. The turn developed into a spiral dive, from which the pilot was unable to recover before impacting the ground.	Injury Pilot: Fatal
Date 09.08.2022	Pilot Male Age: 56 Rating: P Flying Experience: 33 years 2291 hours (50 hours) 3795 flights (88 flights)	Location Coal Aston Airfield, Chesterfield, UK Wind Strength: 5-10 km/h Conditions: Calm, Not Turbulent	Wing Type Powered HG Wing: Flylight Airsports PeaBee Launch Type: Powered Engine: Vittorazi, Moster 185 Silent	Summary While flying XC pilot heard a bang and felt the base bar move. Pilot landed and carried out an inspection. Pilot discovered breather tube had been sucked out into the airflow and had struck prop. Pilot made repairs and fixed breather tube with cable ties to prevent reoccurrence.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt
Date 06.08.2022	Pilot Male Age: 51 Rating: P Flying Experience: 8 years 140 hours (30 hours) 346 flights (42 flights)	Location XC - landing near Shirebrook, Nr Shirebrook, UK Wind Strength: 5-10 km/h Conditions: Moderate, Moderate Turbulence	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: Gin Atlas X Alps Launch Type: Foot	Summary Pilot misjudged final approach when landing out after an XC. Pilot reached the end of the field with excess height so made some low turns. Pilot was unsure of wind direction and landed heavily cross or down wind.	Injury Pilot: Minor Injuries, Hands, Arms, Shoulder
Date 05.08.2022	Pilot Male Age: 39 Rating: CP Flying Experience: 3 years 2 hours (3 hours) 7 flights (7 flights)	Location Devil's Dyke, Poynings, UK Wind Strength: 20-25 km/h Conditions: Strong, Moderate Turbulence	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: Niviuk Koyot 4 Launch Type: Foot	Summary Pilot encountered sinking air and flew through a bush.	Injury Pilot: Minor Injuries, Feet, Legs
Date 04.08.2022	Pilot Male Age: 67 Rating: CP Flying Experience: 48 years 260 hours (10 hours)	Location Mendlesham, Crowfield/Suffolk, UK Wind Strength: 10-15 km/h Conditions: Moderate, Not Turbulent	Wing Type Flexwing Hang Glider Wing: Wills Wing Sport 2 Launch Type: Winch/vehicle Tow	Summary Pilot had near miss with military helicopter. Helicopter passed within approx 100m.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt
Date 02.08.2022	Pilot Age: 48 Rating: P Flying Experience: 17 years 1200 hours (45 hours) (20 flights)	Location UK	Wing Type Paraglider Launch Type: Foot	Summary Pilot noticed in flight that parachute handle was loose. Pilot reattached it to the velcro. On landing the pilot discovered that the parachute had almost fully deployed but had not come out of the harness. Pilot had not checked it pre-flight.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt

Last updated: 2 December 2024

Displaying page 29 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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