I'm terrified of heights (or more specifically I'm terrified of a 'drop') .. this didn't help
https://youtu.be/dLBJA8SlH2w
Holy crap! That definitely decreased my desire to do that again!
I went cold watching that. Oh my god!!
I do miss my hanggliding days...
But this is an utterly inexcusable error from the pilot.
21 deaths in the Saxetbach rafting accident, letting a tourist make a 100m bungee jump with a 180m line, here not making a simple preflight check. All totally avoidable. When will they ever learn...
SHV should cancel this pilots licence...
Jos
He got the hang of it...
Not making a hang check is inexcusable but he also neglected to do the right thing after realising his error - namely turning back towards the hill and immediately landing, in any fashion, rather than risk his passenger falling hundreds of feet.
(And much easier to do in the Alps with the 'reverse wind gradient' meaning little tail wind rather than the hill top gales on U.K. fells).
So much more than one bad mistake.
Yes, I was wondering why he didn't turn round and do a fly-on-the-wall landing immediately. Maybe, with the passenger hanging onto the bar he didn't have enough authority to turn?
wow, that guy must be some kind of superhero holding on that long, most people cant even lift their own body weight let along hang on for a few minutes. Guess that saying about a lot of strength in fear is true.
Any kind of crash landing would have been better than the passenger falling hundreds of feet to his death.
I think he could turn pretty well - half way through the video, he makes a right-hand turn with what appears to be the intention of landing behind some huts on a clear patch of grass. He then decides against this and turns left out over the valley.
I was actually thinking at this point that he was cowardly trying to save his own skin rather than doing the right thing and looking out for his passenger but he'd probably deny this.
We should remember than tandem pilots have many hundreds of hours of airtime and are quite capable of making rational decisions on the fly, in emergency situations, so I stand by my last statement.
I love it how people can judge the piloting from their armchairs... the glider has somebody dangling from it, changing the balance a lot. Those things are steered with body weight. I am surprised the pilot managed to keep it under control at all.
You can see in the video how the pilot has to struggle to just fly straight... and I don't see how he "turns pretty well" at all. He tries several landing approaches in the middle, but does not get the plane under control. Those right turns aren't intentional, they are the result of trying to lift the guy up to the bar.
A sharp 180 degree corner right at the start is in that situation would have been a very bad call. And "any crash would have been better": Really? Because the guy survived with a minor wrist injury. At the bottom where the ambulance could easily pick him up. Smashing a glider into a mountain just to make it stop faster doesn't sound like a super smart idea to me.
I've just made the mistake of watching this again...
Based on the comments here... the pilot's actions are starting to look more pernicious. Why didn't he do a fast u-turn and crash back into the hill ? Why didn't he immediately get closer to the ground ? (even if a lot of it was covered in trees).
The video has only just come out.. I think that pilot's in trouble.... I imagine at the very least he'll have to explain his actions to some 'authority'.
the pilot was extremely lucky the guy was so strong!! normal guy on the street wouldn't have been able to hold on that long, yes it turned out ok for all involved but that's not the point, he had no idea he was that fit, he should have ditched (imho)
Comment section below the video...
I think we all agree that the outcome was good, but can you imagine the defence in court if the passenger had fallen and died?
"Yes, yer onner, I did think about trying to crash land straight away, but decided it would be better to leave him hanging on for dear life over a much greater drop for a lot longer because ......"
What would you add to finish the sentence, cos I sure can't think of anything.
Er no, they judge it with hundred of hours of experience. How much airtime do you have?
Absolutely. That's standard practice. It's a bloody miracle that the tourist didn't fall hundreds of feet to his death.
So easy to write that with the benefit of hindsight. You clever thing.
The pilot should have crashed into a tree as soon as possible - much higher chance of survival than a fall from any height. Its nothing short of a miracle and maybe his kung-fu grip that the guy didn't fall and die.
Right after launch, when it was obvious there was a problem, the pilot could have steered left back towards the hillside. Later on at the 53 second mark he should have flown straight into those trees on the right hand side instead of turning out over the valley.
In any case, a semi-controlled crash is definitely better than someone falling to their death.
Swinging through the control bar and breaking a collar bone is a usual result of a high speed uncontrolled landing.
What sort of injuries (if death isn't the result) do people have after falling hundreds of feet?
About 700 starts in gliders (sailplanes, not hang gliders). Not sure about the total time. Its been a while... I know that forgetting a 5kg auxiliary wheel at the rear of my glider gave me a whole lot of trouble to keep the balance. I know that I would not do a U turn in something even more frickle and some 80kg dude shaking it up. But that's just me. I would also not judge the aborted landings in the middle without knowing that mountain or the wind conditions during that day. But I guess I am simply not opinionated enough for your standards...
Standard practice is to hang-in check before you start. And this is supposed to be a commercial pilot....
Far too many incidents in Interlaken already. When will they grow up ?
Jos
I've flown paragliders all over the world. Hundreds of flights including many alongside friends who fly hang-gliders.
A sailplane probably needs hundreds of meters of landing strip. A hang-glider can land on a sixpence with an experienced pilot (but not in this case obviously) but almost any crash landing would (without the benefit of your hindsight) be preferable to what the pilot actually did.
Not sure why you're trying to prove me wrong - this is standard procedure along with, for example, any crash on land being preferable to a landing on water.