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 paraglider 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 2455 entries for paraglider wings

Displaying page 17 out of 246

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Date	Pilot	Location	Wing Type	Summary	Injury
Incident Reports
Date 17.06.2023	Pilot Male Age: 35 Rating: P Flying Experience: 5 years 140 hours (50 hours) 273 flights (73 flights)	Location La Clusaz, France Wind Strength: 5-10 km/h Conditions: Strong, Moderate Turbulence	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: 777 R-light 3 Launch Type: Foot	Summary Pilot had frontal collapse while on XC which developed into a cascade. Pilot deployed parachute but landed on rocks.	Injury Pilot: Seriously Injured
Date 16.06.2023	Pilot Male Age: 56 Rating: P Flying Experience: 9 years 250 hours (25 hours) 200 flights (15 flights)	Location Coniston Old Man, Lake District, UK Wind Strength: 15-20 km/h Conditions: Strong, Strong Turbulence	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: Phi Allegro light Launch Type: Foot	Summary Pilot launched from Lake District mountain. Initial climb weakened and pilot found themselves tracking downwind along the ridge. Pilot then encountered severe turbulence with the wing fully collapsing and the pilot hitting the ground before being able to deploy their parachute.	Injury Pilot: Seriously Injured, Cervical Spine
Date 14.06.2023	Pilot Male Age: 33 Rating: CP Flying Experience: 4 years 20 hours (15 hours) 90 flights (60 flights)	Location White Horse, Weymouth, UK Wind Strength: 10-15 km/h Conditions: Calm, Not Turbulent	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: BGD EPIC Launch Type: Foot	Summary The Pilot came out of a thermal and was flying downwind, top landed with the slope of hill on his left hand side, his legs were down and the wing overflew him his left arm was seen to impact the ground fully extended.	Injury Pilot: Seriously Injured, Hands, Arms, Shoulder
Date 14.06.2023	Pilot Male Age: 62 Rating: P Flying Experience: 7 years 72 hours (10 hours) 200 flights (23 flights)	Location France Wind Strength: 15-20 km/h Conditions: Moderate, Strong Turbulence, Leeside	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: Ozone Rush 6 Launch Type: Foot	Summary Pilot encountered severe turbulence while flying in north wind in Annecy. Lines and risers became twisted so pilot deployed emergency parachute. Pilot landed safely through trees	Injury Pilot: Unhurt
Date 14.06.2023	Pilot Male Age: 73 Rating: P Flying Experience: 48 years	Location Pontlottyn, UK	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: Nova Mentor 5 Lite Launch Type: Foot	Summary During pre-flight inspection pilot noticed main A2 line was damaged where it attached to the Maillon connector. Pilot ordered new line and on fitting noticed adjacent line was also damaged. Further inspection showed a sharp irregularity on the upper, inside curve of the Maillon.	Injury Unknown
Date 04.06.2023	Pilot Male Age: 38 Rating: CP Flying Experience: 2 years 7 hours (7 hours) 18 flights (18 flights)	Location Heol Senni, Brecon, UK Wind Strength: 20-25 km/h Conditions:, Moderate Turbulence	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: BGD Epic Launch Type: Foot	Summary Pilot was picked up, and blown/dragged back during launch, colliding with dry stone wall behind launch.	Injury Pilot: Seriously Injured, Head Injuries
Date 04.06.2023	Pilot Male Age: 60 Rating: CP Flying Experience: 4 years 2 hours (1 hour) 8 flights (3 flights)	Location Monksdown, UK Wind Strength: 15-20 km/h	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: Gin Bolero 4 Launch Type: Foot	Summary While practicing ground handling pilot was lifted off feet. Pilot flared and was lifted higher. Pilot turned upwind along the ridge without losing height. Pilot then turned downwind along the ridge and crashed at speed.	Injury Pilot: Seriously Injured
Date 02.06.2023	Pilot Male Age: 54 Rating: P Flying Experience: 5 years 250 hours (50 hours) 307 flights (52 flights)	Location Burnbank Fell, Cockermouth, Cumbria, UK Wind Strength: 5-10 km/h Conditions: Calm	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: Advance Iota DLS Launch Type: Foot	Summary While thermalling close to the hillside pilot misjudged distance from the slope and did not have room to complete the 360 turn. Pilot collided with hill down wind on take off area.	Injury Pilot: Seriously Injured, Feet, Legs
Date 26.05.2023	Pilot Male Age: 64 Rating: AP Flying Experience: 18 years 1000 hours (50 hours) 1000 flights (30 flights)	Location Malvern Kettle Sings, Malvern, UK Wind Strength: 15-20 km/h Conditions: Strong, Moderate Turbulence	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: Ozone Zeno Launch Type: Foot	Summary While flying through sink on half bar pilot entered a strong thermal. Wing suffered 70% asymmetric collapse resulting in a large cravat. Pilot could not maintain heading so deployed emergency parachute and landed safely.	Injury Pilot: Minor Injuries, Feet, Legs
Date 24.05.2023	Pilot Male Age: 59 Rating: P Flying Experience: 8 years 75 hours (12 hours) 228 flights (20 flights)	Location Babadag 1900, Oludeniz, Turkey Wind Strength: 15-20 km/h Conditions: Moderate, Moderate Turbulence	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: Phi Symphonia Launch Type: Foot	Summary Pilot suffered frontal collapse on launch. Suspected fell out of back of thermal. Landed on rocky ground from approx 3m.	Injury Pilot: Seriously Injured

Last updated: 5 January 2025

Displaying page 17 out of 246

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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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