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 3287 entries for all wing types

Displaying page 70 out of 329

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Date	Pilot	Location	Wing Type	Summary	Injury
Incident Reports
Date 20.08.2019	Pilot Male Age: 49 Rating: P Flying Experience: 26 years 500 hours	Location Woolacombe, Woolacombe, UK Wind Strength: 15-20 km/h Conditions: Moderate, Very Strong Turbulence	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: Niviuk Peak 4 Launch Type: Foot	Summary Pilot suffered asymmetric collapse and rotation when entering rough thermal at low level. Pilot struck ground as glider rotated. Pilot suspects being in the lee of higher ground was responsible for turbulence.	Injury Pilot: Minor Injuries, Feet, Legs
Date 20.08.2019	Pilot Male Age: 67 Rating: P Flying Experience: 500 hours (25 hours) 1500 flights (40 flights)	Location Dunstable Downs, Dunstable, UK Wind Strength: 15-20 km/h Conditions: Calm, Moderate Turbulence	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: Skywalk Chili 3 Launch Type: Foot	Summary Pilot encountered turbulence while ridge soaring, probably due to leeside rotor coming over a spur, and landed heavily.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt
Date 17.08.2019	Pilot Male Age: 70 Rating: P Flying Experience: 49 years 900 hours (20 hours) 1200 flights (15 flights)	Location Aberavon Dunes, Port Talbot, UK Wind Strength: 25-30 km/h Conditions:, Not Turbulent	Wing Type Flexwing Hang Glider Wing: Aeros Target Launch Type: Foot	Summary Pilot attempted to take off in breezy conditions on dunes but was immediately turned causing a heavy landing.	Injury Pilot: Seriously Injured, Hands, Arms, Shoulder
Date 14.08.2019	Pilot Male Age: 65 Rating: AP Flying Experience: 38 years 4500 hours (75 hours) (60 flights)	Location Pena Negra, Piedrahita, Spain Wind Strength: 5-10 km/h Conditions:, Moderate Turbulence	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: Phi Maestro	Summary As speed bar was applied the webbing of the mechanism which pulls the B riser down broke. Pilot released the speed bar and continued the flight without using it further.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt
Date 13.08.2019	Pilot Male Age: 25 Rating: P Flying Experience: 8 years 175 hours (50 hours) 200 flights (30 flights)	Location Westbury White Horse, UK Wind Strength: 10-15 km/h Conditions: Very Strong, Moderate Turbulence, Flight In Clouds, Fog	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: 777 Queen 2 Launch Type: Foot	Summary Pilot thermalled up in 'blue hole' thermal above the height of cloud base. Cloud then formed around pilot who tried to escape by flying downwind. The cloud became turbulent and the pilot attempted to spiral out of the cloud but without success. Pilot deployed parachute but maintained height within the cloud until eventually sinking out and landing in a tree. Pilot was rescued from the tree safely.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt
Date 12.08.2019	Pilot Unknown	Location Unknown	Wing Type Other	Summary Gin Verso airbag harness was in for routine parachute repack and packer noticed airbag in harness had split along an internal seam therefore allowing air to escape. Packer noted that this was a recurring problem with this type of harness.	Injury Unknown
Date 08.08.2019	Pilot Female Rating: AP Flying Experience: 18 years (70 hours)	Location Golden Ball, Pewsey, UK Wind Strength: 10-15 km/h Conditions: Moderate	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: Ozone Alpina 3 Launch Type: Foot	Summary Pilot encountered another pilot who was flying aggressively, erratically and close to other pilots.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt
Date 08.08.2019	Pilot Male Age: 27 Rating: P Flying Experience: 9 years 650 hours (69 hours) 3269 flights (420 flights)	Location Ballard, Swanage, UK Wind Strength: 10-15 km/h Conditions:, Light Turbulence	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: BGD Cure Launch Type: Foot	Summary Pilot was attempting acro manoeuvres while coastal soaring and fell into left side riser, splitting the B's and C's. Pilot deployed parachute and landed in shoreline unhurt.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt
Date 04.08.2019	Pilot Male Age: 49 Rating: P Flying Experience: 29 years 2000 hours	Location Eype, Bridport, UK Wind Strength: 15-20 km/h Conditions: Calm, Not Turbulent	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: Advance BiBeta 5 Launch Type: Foot	Summary Pilot was approaching to land at coastal site when increased wind meant limited space to veer from chosen landing approach. As the pilot flared to land the bottom of the passenger harness struck the head of a person standing in the field.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt Passenger: Unhurt
Date 04.08.2019	Pilot Male Age: 51 Flying Experience: 8 years 125 hours (33 hours) 400 flights (80 flights)	Location Newhaven Cliffs, Newhaven, UK Wind Strength: 10-15 km/h Conditions: Calm, Not Turbulent	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: Ozone Rush 1 Launch Type: Foot	Summary Pilot had an almost 'head-on' mid-air collision with another paraglider pilot while flying close to the ridge with the ridge on his right.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt

Last updated: 22 June 2025

Displaying page 70 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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