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British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association

Incident Reports (FIDA)

Once passed for publication, all new incident reports submitted via the FIDA pan Europe incident reporting system will be made available on this page.

In the meantime all the 2025/6 reports submitted via the Euro system, and passed for publication before it was shut down, can be found below. Reports submitted via the earlier BHPA online reporting system can also be found below.

This page will slowly include the remaining incident report submitted via the old Euro system.

Unfortunately, whilst all of these reports were successfully imported into the FIDA database by our German colleagues, they failed to include the status of the "publish" field which determines if a report can appear on our website.

As a result around 1,400 old Euro reports have to be reviewed and cross checked before they can be included here. This is a painfully slow process, and is likely to take some time to complete.

All incident reports submitted via the old Euro system, and approved for publication, are however available on our Incident Reports Archive page

Summaries of published incident reports are available for the following wing types:

You can also search the BHPA incident reports database by incident date, pilot, location, wing type, etc. For example, if you want to search for paraglider incidents at Hay Bluff, select paraglider from the drop down list, and enter Hay Bluff in the search box with the "or" option selected.

To search by incident date, please enter the day, month and year numerically as dd-mm-yyyy (eg. 03-12-2019).

If known, total flights flown and flights flown in the past six months are displayed below, the latter being displayed in brackets.

There are 1715 published incident report summaries for all wing types

Displaying page 3 out of 172

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Date	Pilot	Location	Wing Type	Summary	Injury
Incident Reports

Date 30.12.2025 (F12996)	Pilot male Rating: CP	Location Telegraph Hill, East Lothian, UK Wind Strength: 25-30 km/h Conditions: unknown, unknown	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: Nova Mentor 3 Launch Type: foot	Summary On a coastal ridge in strong, gusty conditions, the paraglider experienced an asymmetric collapse shortly after take-off and entered a spin. The pilot then impacted the hillside, sustaining injury.	Injury Pilot: minor injuries, head injuries

Date 20.12.2025 (F18961)	Pilot male Age: 70 Flying Experience: 29 years 700 flights (33 flights)	Location Witchy Knowe, Ettrick Valley, UK Wind Strength: 25-30 km/h Conditions: calm (1 m/s), not turbulent	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: SupAir Step X Launch Type: foot	Summary After 25 minutes of flight the pilot noticed the wind increasing, making penetration into wind difficult. They were gale-hanging on full speedbar above their chosen landing area, gradually drifting backwards towards a wall. Upon releasing the speed bar they descended rapidly and landed hard, sustaining injury.	Injury Pilot: minor injuries

Date 19.12.2025 (F13009)	Pilot male Age: 48 Rating: AP Flying Experience: 22 years 800 flights (80 flights)	Location Porterville, PV valley, ZA Wind Strength: 10-15 km/h Conditions: strong (5m/s), moderate turbulence (occasional pilot action required to maintain control)	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: Ozone Zeno 2 Launch Type: foot	Summary The pilot was thermalling and attempting to achieve a 'low save' during a competition flight in strong thermic conditions with moderate turbulence. They collided with the hillside and were dragged along the ground, sustaining injury.	Injury Pilot: seriously injured (more tan 48h in hospital, fractures (except for finger, nose, toe), haermorrhage, ligament rupture), hands, arms, shoulder

Date 26.11.2025 (F12985)	Pilot male Age: 57 Rating: Unqualified Flying Experience: 1 year	Location Kelmarsh, Northamptonshire, UK Wind Strength: 5-10 km/h Conditions: calm (1 m/s), not turbulent	Wing Type Powered PG Wing: Dudek Orca 5 Launch Type: powered	Summary A student undertaking a training flight on a paramotor trike at a non BHPA flying school became entangled in the upper branches of trees on the airfield periphery, and was attended to by the emergency services.	Injury Pilot: unhurt

Date 25.11.2025 (F12984)	Pilot male Age: 38 Rating: P Flying Experience: 9 years	Location Trentishoe, North Devon, UK Wind Strength: 25-30 km/h Conditions: unknown, moderate turbulence (occasional pilot action required to maintain control)	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: Ozone Photon Launch Type: foot	Summary The pilot launched in strong, gusty wind intending to use speedbar accelerator system to push forward as soon as they were in the pod. They reported that their "Tec Team QUICKY" accelerator separation system snagged during their cobra launch, activating the release and requiring the pilot to let go of the controls mid-flight to reconnect it whilst being blown over the back of the hill. They eventually landed without injury.	Injury Pilot: unhurt

Date 21.11.2025 (F12993)	Pilot male Age: 43 Rating: P Flying Experience: 5 years 550 flights (60 flights)	Location Porthmadog, Wales, UK Wind Strength: 10-15 km/h Conditions: calm (1 m/s), not turbulent	Wing Type Other Wing: Flare Prop Launch Type: foot	Summary The pilot entered a spiral dive followed by a SAT during which the wing catastrophically tore into two pieces along the chord. With the glider largely uncontrollable and lines briefly contacting the propeller, the pilot deployed their emergency parachute and landed without further incident.	Injury Pilot: unhurt

Date 17.11.2025 (F12981)	Pilot female Age: 50 Rating: P Flying Experience: 35 years (80 flights)	Location Lords Seat, Derbyshire, UK Wind Strength: 15-20 km/h Conditions:, unknown	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: Ozone Photon Launch Type: foot	Summary The pilot was attempting to 'scratch' back to takeoff and paraglider experienced a collapse in rotor in the lee of ground features on the site. The pilot hit a rock and rolled down the slope.	Injury Pilot: minor injuries, hands, arms, shoulder, feet, legs

Date 09.11.2025 (F12978)	Pilot male Age: 55 Rating: P Flying Experience: 36 years (150 flights)	Location Lowca, Whitehaven, UK Wind Strength: 25-30 km/h Conditions: calm (1 m/s), not turbulent	Wing Type Other Wing: Flare Moustache 2 Launch Type: foot	Summary The pilot attempted a downwind tip drag shortly after take off. They were momentarily distracted by a knot in the wingtip line, misjudged their separation from the ground and struck a gulley, coming to a sharp stop.	Injury Pilot: minor injuries, lumbar spine

Date 02.11.2025 (F12990)	Pilot male Age: 73 Rating: P Flying Experience: 9 years 280 flights (20 flights)	Location Algodonales, Algodonales, Cádiz, ES Wind Strength: 20-25 km/h Conditions: calm (1 m/s), not turbulent	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: Ozone Rush 5 Launch Type: foot	Summary The pilot flew downwind passing potential landing areas and aiming to clear a low hill, expecting good landing options on the leeside. They lacked sufficient height to confirm a suitable landing area. Having committed to the downwind glide over the hill, they encountered extensive trees and no lift. The pilot was forced to make a tree landing.	Injury Pilot: unhurt

Date 25.10.2025 (F12974)	Pilot male Age: 61 Rating: P Flying Experience: 31 years (6 flights)	Location Westbury White Horse, Westbury, UK Wind Strength: 20-25 km/h Conditions: calm (1 m/s), unknown	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: Ozone Zero 2 Launch Type: foot	Summary The pilot lost control of the paraglider during a launch and was dragged. On subsequent launch attempt, the pilot's emergency parachute fell out of its outer container. The flight was aborted without further incident. The pilot noted that the handle may have been released during the initial dragging and they did not ascertain it was stowed correctly before the second launch attempt.	Injury Pilot: unhurt

Last updated: 3 July 2026

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A number of incident analysis reports are also available in the safety section of main portal, bhpa.co.uk. These are compiled from the individual incident reports submitted during the course of each year.

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