Shimla: A Belgian paraglider was killed after colliding mid-air with one other paraglider in Himachal’s Kangra district, 5 days forward of the Paragliding World Cup 2024 set to happen in Bir-Billing, police mentioned on Wednesday. Feyarets, a free-flying paraglider in his mid-sixties, had come to Bir-Billing for follow, forward of the World Cup. Though each paragliders took off individually, they collided mid-air on Tuesday. Feyarets crashed into the forest, whereas the opposite paraglider acquired entangled in bushes and suffered accidents. He was later rescued.
Police mentioned that Feyaret’s physique is but to be recovered from the forest. This incident follows one other fatality on October 23, 2023, when Polish paraglider Andrez died throughout a solo flight from Bir-Billing. Avinash Negi, Director of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering and Allied Sports activities (ABVIMAS) in Manali, had earlier emphasised the necessity for enhanced security measures in journey sports activities, notably paragliding.
“A proposal to put in particular towers in excessive mountains to pinpoint the crash websites in case of accidents is within the pipeline,” Negi mentioned. Whereas paragliders use gadgets to ship misery and crash-landing alerts, the GPS-enabled methods present imprecise location knowledge (inside 50-100 meters), which may hinder rescue efforts, an knowledgeable famous. A complete of 130 paragliders from 50 nations are anticipated to compete on this yr’s World Cup, scheduled from November 2 to 9 in Bir-Billing.
