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 other wings 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 29 entries for other wings

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Date	Pilot	Location	Wing Type	Summary	Injury
Incident Reports
Date 30.05.2020	Pilot Male Age: 30 Rating: P Flying Experience: 25 years 1000 hours (30 hours) 1000 flights (50 flights)	Location Abingdon Airfield, Abingdon, UK Wind Strength: 10-15 km/h Conditions: Calm, Not Turbulent	Wing Type Other Wing: Harley Harley Launch Type: Winch/vehicle Tow	Summary Upon release of the tow line, pilot induced a full stall and spin. During spin the break line snapped. Canopy self recovered. Pilot landed safely into wind using the rear risers.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt
Date 30.05.2020	Pilot Male Age: 47 Rating: CP Flying Experience: 7 years 130 flights (6 flights)	Location Abingdon Army Base, Abingdon, UK Wind Strength: 10-15 km/h Conditions: Moderate, Not Turbulent	Wing Type Other Wing: Harley Harley 288 Launch Type: Winch/vehicle Tow	Summary The pilot attempted to fly back to launch and was not able to turn into wind to land. He attempted a crosswind landing on tarmac at speed and sustained injury.	Injury Pilot: Seriously Injured, Feet, Legs
Date 03.02.2020	Pilot Male Age: 71 Rating: AP Flying Experience: 16 years 194 hours	Location None, Lechlade, UK	Wing Type Other Wing: High Aventure Beamer Emergency Parachute	Summary During repack session pilot noticed that the control handle sticks had been threaded through the metal rings. They should NOT have been put through the rings but simply inserted into the sleeves.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt
Date 27.10.2019	Pilot Female Age: 25 Flying Experience: 6 years	Location Beddingham, Lewes, UK	Wing Type Other	Summary Student was walking up the training hill and twisted her ankle	Injury Pilot: Minor Injuries, Feet, Legs
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 06.07.2019	Pilot Male Age: 57 Flying Experience: 6 years 1 flight (1 flight)	Location Field opposite Upton Marina, Upton, UK Wind Strength: 5-10 km/h Conditions: Calm, Light Turbulence	Wing Type Other Wing: Waterbird Mistral Launch Type: Winch/vehicle Tow	Summary Student did parachute landing fall as is done with round canopy but hurt left shin. Checked by paramedic who was onsite.	Injury Pilot: Minor Injuries, Feet, Legs
Date 23.06.2019	Pilot Male Age: 57 Rating: Parascending Pilot Flying Experience: 10 years 537 flights (100 flights)	Location Birdwings, South Cerney Airfield, Swindon, UK Wind Strength: 20-25 km/h Conditions:, Not Turbulent	Wing Type Other Wing: Performance Designs Zero Launch Type: Winch/vehicle Tow	Summary On 13th vehicle tow of the day pilot signalled for release, vehicle slowed but canopy accelerated and felt the tow pressure increase suddenly, line broke just past the release and recoiled into pilot's face.	Injury Pilot: Minor Injuries, Head Injuries
Date 10.04.2019	Pilot Unknown	Location UK	Wing Type Other Wing: N/a	Summary A service centre discovered that the bridle on a Gin Gingo Airlite harness had been sewn into the seem of the harness during manufacture. The seam was unpicked and the bridle released, then the seam repaired.	Injury Unknown
Date 18.07.2018	Pilot Male Age: 55 Rating: AP Flying Experience: 36 years 1000 hours (40 hours) 1000 flights (50 flights)	Location Egerton, Headcorn, UK Wind Strength: 5-10 km/h Conditions: Calm, Not Turbulent	Wing Type Other Wing: Cyclone Airsports Chaser S Launch Type: Powered Engine: Rotax, 447	Summary Pilot landed microlight safely but caught foot on throttle while correcting a turn. Relaxing the pressure caused the course to deviate again, and the resulting attempts to manage both throttle and steering caused an oscillation, which led to the aircraft turning over onto its side. Pilot was able to release seat belt and exit aircraft with no injury.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt
Date 18.07.2018	Pilot Male Age: 19 Rating: Novice Flying Experience: 8 years 9 hours (5 hours) 25 flights (10 flights)	Location Sywell Aerodrome, Northampton, UK Wind Strength: 0-5 km/h Conditions: Calm, Not Turbulent	Wing Type Other Wing: John McIntyre Airglow Launch Type: Powered Engine: Arkwright, 175cm 61kg	Summary During human power competition pilot overshot the landing area having miscalculated the distance required to stop the aircraft. Aircraft side wire caught a runway light causing some damage to the aircraft.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt

Last updated: 5 January 2025

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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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