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 3283 entries for all wing types

Displaying page 48 out of 329

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Date	Pilot	Location	Wing Type	Summary	Injury
Incident Reports
Date 26.06.2021	Pilot Male Age: 52 Rating: P Flying Experience: 9 years 140 hours (40 hours) 180 flights (50 flights)	Location High and Over, Sussex, UK Wind Strength: 5-10 km/h Conditions: Moderate, Light Turbulence	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: 777 Rook 3 Launch Type: Foot	Summary The pilot launched in a light and switching wind and clipped the fence with their foot, causing them to rotate under the paraglider to the extent where the risers twisted. The pilot was able to regain control and slope land.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt
Date 26.06.2021	Pilot Male Age: 64 Rating: P Flying Experience: 47 years 650 hours (20 hours) 1000 flights (45 flights)	Location Sutton Meadows, Cambridgeshire, UK Wind Strength: 10-15 km/h Conditions: Moderate	Wing Type Other Wing: Flylight Foxtug Launch Type: Aero Tow	Summary The Foxtug was aerotowing a Wills Wing Falcon F3 (tandem). After initial engine warm-up, a take-off was made on full power. The Foxtug's Rotax 582 engine suffered a power loss at around 200ft AGL which recovered and then dropped again. The tandem pilot released when signalled, and landed without further incident.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt Passenger: Unhurt
Date 26.06.2021	Pilot Male Age: 59 Rating: CP Flying Experience: 22 years 600 hours (10 hours) 300 flights (15 flights)	Location Holme Moss, West Yorkshire, UK Wind Strength: 10-15 km/h Conditions: Moderate, Light Turbulence	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: Nova Mentor 6 light Launch Type: Foot	Summary The pilot lost control of their paraglider in thermic conditions, leading to a spin and collision with the hillside.	Injury Pilot: Minor Injuries
Date 26.06.2021	Pilot Male Age: 56 Rating: P Flying Experience: 10 years 155 hours (21 hours) 516 flights (59 flights)	Location Back of Ecton, Ecton, UK Wind Strength: 25-30 km/h Conditions: Moderate, Moderate Turbulence	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: Sol Sycross One Launch Type: Foot	Summary The pilot was soaring their paraglider in thermic conditions and experienced a departure from normal flight involving a collapse, before impacting the ground and sustaining injury.	Injury Pilot: Seriously Injured
Date 19.06.2021	Pilot Male Age: 60 Rating: P Flying Experience: 29 years 600 hours (10 hours) 1500 flights (40 flights)	Location Moel Berfedd, Snowdonia, UK Wind Strength: 5-10 km/h Conditions: Calm, Light Turbulence	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: Advance Bi Beta 5 Launch Type: Foot	Summary No details available	Injury Pilot: Unhurt Passenger: Unhurt
Date 17.06.2021	Pilot Male Age: 61 Rating: P Flying Experience: 20 years 107 hours (5 hours) 703 flights (28 flights)	Location Altes Lager Airfield, Berlin, Germany Wind Strength: 15-20 km/h Conditions: Calm, Light Turbulence	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: UP Dena Launch Type: Winch/vehicle Tow	Summary The pilot was aware of fraying speedbar wire in flight. After landing, an inspection revealed that several metal wire strands had broken where the wire stirrup and speedbar line attachment meets the aluminium bar.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt
Date 15.06.2021	Pilot Male Age: 36 Rating: P Flying Experience: 6 years 40 hours (25 hours) 100 flights (70 flights)	Location Eyam Edge, Derbyshire, UK Wind Strength: 10-15 km/h Conditions: Moderate, Moderate Turbulence, Front Influence	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: Swing Arcus RS Launch Type: Foot	Summary The pilot was soaring in thermic conditions and experienced a large asymmetric collapse close to the hill. The pilot was seen to be making control inputs in an attempt to recover to normal flight, but was unable to recover before impacting the hill.	Injury Pilot: Seriously Injured, Hands, Arms, Shoulder
Date 15.06.2021	Pilot Male Age: 46 Rating: P Flying Experience: 14 years 210 hours (20 hours) 900 flights (30 flights)	Location Nant-Y-Moel, Wales, UK Wind Strength: 10-15 km/h Conditions: Moderate, Not Turbulent	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: Advance Bi-Beta 6 Launch Type: Foot	Summary During a tandem launch the Advance Hybrid hard spreader rotated around its in-built carbon bar and locked in this position when under the load of the pilot and passenger. The pilot landed without incident.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt Passenger: Unhurt
Date 15.06.2021	Pilot Male Age: 61 Rating: P Flying Experience: 40 years 1000 hours (19 hours) 1000 flights (28 flights)	Location Sutton Meadows, Peterborough, UK Wind Strength: 5-10 km/h Conditions: Moderate, Not Turbulent	Wing Type Rigid Hang Glider Wing: A-I-R VR Launch Type: Aero Tow	Summary Immediately prior to the aerotow commencing the conditions were nil wind. When "all out" was called, the left wing rose first and continued to rise out of the trolley, caught by a sudden crosswind. The right wingtip came into contact with long grass, turning the glider and trolley. The weak link broke, but the glider had left the runway and stopped nose down in crops.	Injury Pilot: Minor Injuries, Hands, Arms, Shoulder
Date 14.06.2021	Pilot Male Age: 64 Rating: P Flying Experience: 23 years 1500 hours (20 hours) 2000 flights (30 flights)	Location Telegraph Hill, Batcombe (Dorset), UK	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: Advance X Alps 3 Launch Type: Foot	Summary The pilot became aware during flight that a hook knife had been left inside the paraglider. The pilot landed without incident. Upon inspection it was found that the hook knife had caused damage to the wing's internal structure.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt

Last updated: 20 May 2025

Displaying page 48 out of 329

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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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