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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 4 out of 172

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Date	Pilot	Location	Wing Type	Summary	Injury
Incident Reports

Date 11.10.2025 (F12970)	Pilot Unknown	Location Sutton Meadows, Cambridgeshire, UK Wind Strength: 0-5 km/h Conditions: calm (1 m/s), not turbulent	Wing Type Flexwing hang glider Wing: hang glider aerotow trolley Launch Type: aero tow	Summary The front right main wheel of an aerotow trolley failed when its steel spindle (previously repaired and reinforced) snapped at the hub shortly after the launched hang glider released the trolley. There were no injuries. Investigation revealed evidence of a long-developing crack that was only detectable by fully removing the wheel assembly. The incident reporter notes that the trolley design is similar to others used in the UK and potentially elsewhere.	Injury Pilot: unhurt

Date 23.09.2025 (F12950)	Pilot male Age: 35 Rating: P Flying Experience: 8 years 500 flights (17 flights)	Location Mam Tor NW, Hope Valley, UK Wind Strength: 15-20 km/h Conditions: moderate (3m/s), moderate turbulence (occasional pilot action required to maintain control)	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: Advance Iota DLS Launch Type: foot	Summary The pilot had climbed to approximately 3000ft in thermic lift and encountered turbulence. Their paraglider suffered a large asymmetric collapse, the risers twisting, preventing operation of the controls. The paraglider entered a spiral dive. The pilot made a successful deployment of their emergency parachute and landed without injury.	Injury Pilot: unhurt

Date 21.09.2025 (F12966)	Pilot male Age: 42 Rating: P Flying Experience: 10 years (30 flights)	Location Harting Down, West Sussex, UK Wind Strength: 10-15 km/h Conditions: moderate (3m/s), moderate turbulence (occasional pilot action required to maintain control)	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: Advance Sigma 11 Launch Type: foot	Summary The paraglider suffered a frontal collapse in strong thermic lift whilst close to the ground. The wing re-inflated but due to the proximity of the ground the pilot was unable to recover from the dive and landed in a tree.	Injury Pilot: unhurt

Date 14.09.2025 (F12958)	Pilot male Age: 62 Rating: P Flying Experience: 9 years 200 flights (30 flights)	Location El Bosque, Algodanales, ES Wind Strength: 5-10 km/h Conditions: calm (1 m/s), moderate turbulence (occasional pilot action required to maintain control)	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: Skywalk Arak 2	Summary Whilst setting up to land after a cross country flight, the pilot encountered thermic lift and turned, the turn taking them into turbulent air on the lee side of a building. They experienced a series of delations whilst attempting to fly away from the turbulent air. They managed to land without further incident.	Injury Pilot: unhurt Passenger: unhurt

Date 24.08.2025 (F12934)	Pilot male Age: 54 Rating: P Flying Experience: 27 years (25 flights)	Location Nont Sarahs, Huddersfield, UK Wind Strength: 5-10 km/h Conditions: moderate (3m/s), light turbulence (no pilot action required to maintain control)	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: 777 R-light 3 Launch Type: foot	Summary The pilot reported a large model aircraft being flown in close proximity to paragliders.	Injury Pilot: unhurt

Date 22.08.2025 (F12937)	Pilot male Rating: Unknown	Location Westbury White Horse, Westbury, UK Wind Strength: 5-10 km/h Conditions: moderate (3m/s), moderate turbulence (occasional pilot action required to maintain control)	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: Unknown paraglider Unknown Launch Type: foot	Summary The pilot was observed launching just before a dust devil passed through the launch area. Their paraglider suffered multiple violent collapses and extreme trajectory changes, close to the ground. The pilot landed on their feet, unharmed.	Injury Pilot: unhurt

Date 22.08.2025 (F12935)	Pilot male Age: 61 Rating: CP	Location Woolacombe, Woolacombe, UK Wind Strength: 15-20 km/h Conditions: unknown, not turbulent	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: Advance Alpha Launch Type: foot	Summary The pilot lost control of their paraglider following a collapse and impacted the ground, sustaining injury.	Injury Pilot: seriously injured (more tan 48h in hospital, fractures (except for finger, nose, toe), haermorrhage, ligament rupture)

Date 18.08.2025 (F12980)	Pilot male Age: 64 Rating: P Flying Experience: 28 years 1000 flights (15 flights)	Location Krusevo, Prilep, MK Wind Strength: 5-10 km/h Conditions: moderate (3m/s), moderate turbulence (occasional pilot action required to maintain control)	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: Ozone Photon Launch Type: foot	Summary The pilot encountered sinking air on final approach and inadvertently stalled the paraglider at approximately 3m above ground level.	Injury Pilot: seriously injured (more tan 48h in hospital, fractures (except for finger, nose, toe), haermorrhage, ligament rupture), feet, legs

Date 15.08.2025 (F12926)	Pilot male Age: 67 Rating: P Flying Experience: 27 years	Location Dodd Fell, Hawes, UK Wind Strength: 20-25 km/h Conditions: moderate (3m/s), unknown	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: Advance Sigma DLS Launch Type: foot	Summary The pilot lost control of their wing on take-off in thermic conditions, and was dragged into a rock outcrop where they sustained injury.	Injury Pilot: minor injuries

Date 15.08.2025 (F12921)	Pilot male Rating: unknown	Location Leckhampton, Cheltenham, UK Wind Strength: 10-15 km/h Conditions: unknown, unknown	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: Ozone Photon Launch Type: foot	Summary The pilot was observed scratching for lift and then attempted a slope landing on uneven ground, where they sustained injury. Before the flight the observer noted a broken control line, which was reported to the pilot on launch.	Injury Pilot: minor injuries

Last updated: 3 July 2026

Displaying page 4 out of 172

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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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