Hi there,

There are a lot of good things and experiences in this sport we constantly celebrate together and there are other not so good ones that one day could happen to any of us - no matter how much experience we have.

While performing a tandem flight from Mt. Prevost last Saturday May 31st, 2008 at 12:05 pm from the main launch I found myself in an uncommon situation with very little chance to react. The following is part of my accident report sent to HPAC and posted in this website with the intention to share and learn from our mistakes and avoid running into the same situation later on in our paragliding career.

We had a lot of help from some of the pilots and a crew of volunteer fire fighters and paramedics. The passenger is in good health and was send home after 3 hours at the hospital with pain killers and a neck brace. I’m ok since I landed on my harness and did not require any medical attention.

If you have any questions please let me know and I will do my best to response to your concerns.

Claudio Mota

Weather conditions:

Sunny

Wind speed & direction:

Light east wind with long cycles 5 to 10 km/h from the south

Objective description of the accident:

The accident happened at launch after normal conditions for reverse inflation. The wing came up fully inflated, but was pointing towards some trees 30 degrees to the right of my launch path. When I turned after the reverse inflation I lost the left toggle and was not able to stop the wing from over shooting or to make the necessary correction for take off. I had one person assisting the passenger at the take off by anchoring her by holding on to her harness. When I reached for the toggle we were close to the edge, the assistant moved away from us and the passenger tripped on the assistant’s legs and fell forward off the cliff, pulling me down to a ledge 1 meter below. The passenger was leaning forward while stepping over the edge and landed on her face and her body flipped over her head. I fell to the passenger's side. The wing overshot us and landed in front of us.

Recommendation:

This is the second time that I lost my toggle while reverse launching. I use a reverse technique holding both A's in one hand with the toggle in my wrist and the other hand holding the break line with a finger as well as the other break toggle. The toggles are so wide that it is relatively easy to have it slip out of your hand so I'm planning on either using an O-ring to make the toggles more snug to my hand or hold the toggles differently.

 Report Review - Could this accident have been avoided? How?

Yes, I could have said stop as soon as I lost my toggle instead of trying to find it back so close to the edge