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 31 entries for other wings

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Date	Pilot	Location	Wing Type	Summary	Injury
Incident Reports
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 08.06.2021	Pilot Male Age: 64 Rating: P Flying Experience: 47 years 650 hours (20 hours) 1000 flights (45 flights)	Location Sutton Meadows, Cambridgeshire, UK	Wing Type Other Wing: Unknown Hang Glider launch trolley	Summary After the final, successful, aerotow launch of the day the launch trolley front left side wheel bracket was discovered to be bent and broken on one side. Subsequent inspection found cracks in three of the four flanges on top of the bottom end of the support struts to which the two front wheels attach.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt
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

Last updated: 12 September 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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