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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.

Paraglider (Courtesy Grant Oseland)

Incident reports are available in summary form for the following wing types:

Incident reports for powered pg 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).

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 132 entries for powered pg wings

Displaying page 3 out of 14

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Date Pilot Location Wing Type Summary Injury
Incident Reports

Date
21.09.2020

Pilot
Male

Age:
49

Rating:
P

Flying Experience:
30 years

400 hours
(10 hours)

500 flights
(15 flights)

Location
Farmer's field TO,
Rutland Water,
UK

Wind Strength:
0-5 km/h

Conditions:
Calm,
Not Turbulent

Wing Type
Powered PG

Wing:
Paramania
Revo 2

Launch Type:
Foot

Summary
The pilot was flying a cross country route. He noticed smoke from the paramotor and performed an emergency landing. Upon inspection it was revealed that the LIPO battery was on fire and had caused damage to the harness and clothing.

Injury
Pilot:
Unhurt

Date
15.05.2020

Pilot
Male

Age:
57

Flying Experience:
8 years

60 hours
(3 hours)

105 flights
(6 flights)

Location
Challow,
SWINDON,
UK

Wind Strength:
5-10 km/h

Conditions:
Calm,
Not Turbulent

Wing Type
Powered PG

Wing:
Dudek
Universal

Launch Type:
Powered

Engine:
Parajet,
Maverick

Summary
Pilot was practising walking with the motor running on his back without a wing but slipped and fell over. Pilot released throttle but didn't hit the kill switch quickly enough. Throttle cable struck prop and wrapped round the exhaust. Kill switch did not function, with engine stuck on half throttle. Eventually exhaust melted throttle cable and engine stopped. No Injuries.

Injury
Pilot:
Unhurt

Date
13.09.2019

Pilot
Male

Age:
53

Rating:
P

Flying Experience:
8 years

60 hours
(10 hours)

70 flights
(10 flights)

Location
Private field,
West Sussex,
UK

Wind Strength:
5-10 km/h

Conditions:
Calm,
Not Turbulent

Wing Type
Powered PG

Wing:
Ozone
Spyder

Launch Type:
Powered

Engine:
Air Conception,
Nitro 200

Summary
Pilot misjudged approach and was caught by sinking air, close to ma tree-line on sloping ground.

Injury
Pilot:
Seriously Injured,

Lumbar Spine

Date
28.03.2019

Pilot
Male

Age:
21

Rating:
P

Flying Experience:
8 years

60 hours
(25 hours)

97 flights
(39 flights)

Location
WLMAC,
Harefield/Rickmansworth,
UK

Wind Strength:
0-5 km/h

Conditions:
Calm,
Not Turbulent

Wing Type
Powered PG

Wing:
Ozone
Slalom

Launch Type:
Foot

Summary
Pilot launched into the light wind at sunset with near nil wind conditions and flew a circuit of the model plane airstrip and. While flying downwind at around 50ft the left trim slipped open sending the glider into a sharp steep spin into the ground.

Injury
Pilot:
Seriously Injured

Date
04.03.2019

Pilot
Male

Age:
69

Rating:
CP

Flying Experience:
13 years

50 hours

Location
Bornos lake,
Bornos,
Spain

Wind Strength:
10-15 km/h

Conditions:
Calm,
Not Turbulent

Wing Type
Powered PG

Wing:
Gin
Pegasus

Launch Type:
Powered

Engine:
Miniplane,
Top80

Summary
Student lost control while practising 'launch abort' with motor running. Student attempted to collapse wing but in doing so applied full power to the motor. Student was pushed over by the thrust and was cut on sharp stone.

Injury
Pilot:
Seriously Injured,

Hands, Arms, Shoulder

Date
31.08.2018

Pilot
Male

Age:
25

Rating:
Unknown

Flying Experience:
8 years

50 hours

Location
East Knoyle,
East Knoyle,
UK

Wind Strength:
5-10 km/h

Conditions:
Calm,
Not Turbulent

Wing Type
Powered PG

Wing:
Paramania
GTX

Launch Type:
Powered

Engine:
Parajet,
Zenith

Summary
Glider seen going from stable flight into wing-over maneuver which progressed into deep spiral dive, which pilot was unable to recover. Rapid loss of height resulting in impact to ground and adjacent power lines.

Injury
Pilot:
Fatal

Date
29.08.2018

Pilot
Male

Age:
59

Flying Experience:
14 years


(16 flights)

Location
Private field,
Felsted,
UK

Wind Strength:
5-10 km/h

Conditions:
Calm,
Not Turbulent

Wing Type
Powered PG

Wing:
Dudek
Reaction

Launch Type:
Powered

Engine:
Pap,
Top 80

Summary
Pilot attempted a turn at low level then applied excessive control causing the glider to spin. The glider recovered but entered a spiral dive and the pilot crashed heavily.

Injury
Pilot:
Seriously Injured

Date
04.07.2018

Pilot
Male

Age:
53

Rating:
CP

Flying Experience:
10 years

25 hours
(6 hours)

30 flights
(4 flights)

Location
Anstey,
Leicestershire,
UK

Wind Strength:
5-10 km/h

Conditions:
Calm,
Not Turbulent

Wing Type
Powered PG

Wing:
Ozone
Indy

Launch Type:
Powered

Engine:
Power Jet,
V3

Summary
Pilot had frontal collapse at 600ft while on landing approach. Pilot regained control at 60ft but struck power lines causing the pilot to pendulum underneath to the ground.

Injury
Pilot:
Unhurt

Date
27.06.2018

Pilot
Male

Age:
50

Rating:
CP

Flying Experience:
9 years


Location
BALLYCARY FIELD,
CARRICKFERGUS,
UK

Wind Strength:
0-5 km/h

Conditions:,
Not Turbulent

Wing Type
Powered PG

Launch Type:
Foot

Summary
Pilot lost control of his glider on approach to landing. Possible collapse/stall. Pilot landed heavily.

Injury
Pilot:
Seriously Injured

Date
24.06.2018

Pilot
Male

Age:
49

Rating:
CP

Flying Experience:
24 years

50 hours
(5 hours)

40 flights
(10 flights)

Location
Cutthorpe,
Chesterfield,
UK

Wind Strength:
0-5 km/h

Conditions:
Calm,
Not Turbulent

Wing Type
Powered PG

Wing:
Praavis
Acrobat

Launch Type:
Powered

Engine:
Bailey,
175

Summary
Pilot veered towards dry stone wall while heavily loaded, not realising his trimmers were asymmetrically set. Pilot clipped top of wall and fell down the other side.

Injury
Pilot:
Seriously Injured,

Hands, Arms, Shoulder

Last updated: 5 January 2025

Displaying page 3 out of 14

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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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