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British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association

Incident Reports (Informal)

All incident reports submitted via the old pan Europe incident reporting system, that had been approved for publication prior to 21 January 2026, can be found below.

Incident reports submitted via the new FIDA pan Europe incident reporting system after 21 January 2026 that have been approved for publication can be found on our FIDA Incident reports page

Incident reports are available in summary form for the following wing types:

Incident reports for all wing types are displayed below in summary form.

The BHPA incident reports database is fully searchable. To refine your search you can specify a particular wing type and select "or" or "and". For example, if you want to search for paraglider incidents at Hay Bluff, for best search results select paraglider from the drop down list and the "and" option.

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

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

There are 3356 entries for all wing types

Displaying page 76 out of 336

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Date	Pilot	Location	Wing Type	Summary	Injury
Incident Reports

Date 27.08.2019 (E11996)	Pilot Female Age: 46 Rating: P	Location Panetonne, Monte grappa, Italy Wind Strength: 0-5 km/h Conditions:, Light Turbulence, Flight In Clouds, Fog	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: U-Turn Blacklight 2 Launch Type: Foot	Summary Pilot became disoriented in thickening cloud and applied incorrect input causing glider to spin close to the terrain. Pilot deployed emergency parachute but was too low and impacted side of ravine.	Injury Pilot: Seriously Injured, Lumbar Spine

Date 27.08.2019 (E11993)	Pilot Female Age: 49 Rating: Unqualified 12 flights	Location Swyre Hill, Dorchester, UK Wind Strength: 5-10 km/h Conditions: Calm, Not Turbulent	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: BGD Adam	Summary Student noticed strained leg muscle towards the end of the day. No particular incident of note.	Injury Pilot: Minor Injuries, Feet, Legs

Date 26.08.2019 (E11981)	Pilot Male Age: 42 Rating: P Flying Experience: 19 years 1000 hours (40 hours)	Location Newhaven, Nehaven, UK Wind Strength: 5-10 km/h Conditions: Calm, Not Turbulent	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: BGD Dual Launch Type: Foot	Summary Passenger tripped on take off lost footing and pilot and passenger slid down the front of take off into a bush.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt Passenger: Minor Injuries

Date 26.08.2019 (E11984)	Pilot Female Age: 33 Flying Experience: 7 years 30 flights (30 flights)	Location Steyning Bowl, Steyning, UK Wind Strength: 5-10 km/h Conditions: Calm, Not Turbulent	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: Gin Bolero 5 Launch Type: Foot	Summary Pilot did not run fast enough on launch and did not damp the gliders acceleration causing an asymmetric collapse on launch. Pilot contacted the ground again, glider remained inflated and she took off unharmed and flew to the bottom.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt Passenger: Unhurt

Date 26.08.2019 (E12092)	Pilot Male Age: 54 Rating: AP Flying Experience: 22 years 220 hours (16 hours) 352 flights (16 flights)	Location Col d'Ares, Ager, Spain Wind Strength: 0-5 km/h Conditions: Moderate, Not Turbulent	Wing Type Flexwing Hang Glider Wing: Avian Evo 3 Launch Type: Foot	Summary During comp, pilot left turn point low leaving no safe landing options. Pilot went for small field with intention of using drag chute to help. Pilot accidentally pulled emergency chute rather than drag chute forcing him to deal with this to avoid power lines, while attempting the landing. Drag deployed successfully but when at 1m above, the main chute deployed causing sudden stop. Glider sustained a bent upright.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt

Date 25.08.2019 (E12101)	Pilot Male Age: 28 Rating: CP Flying Experience: 10 years 28 hours (4 hours) 50 flights (6 flights)	Location Alkus, East Tyrol, the alps, Austria Wind Strength: 5-10 km/h Conditions: Calm, Light Turbulence	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: Alpha Alpha 5 Launch Type: Foot	Summary Pilot took off but once clear of the trees was immediately hit by the valley wind blowing at 90 degrees to take-off. Pilot was blown sideways and attempted to turn with the wind to avoid the trees. Unfortunately a wing tip caught on a pine tree resulting in the pilot swinging into the tree.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt

Date 24.08.2019 (E12056)	Pilot Male Age: 60 Rating: AP Flying Experience: 42 years 2500 hours (59 hours) 1600 flights (29 flights)	Location Coll D’Ares, Ager, Spain Wind Strength: 5-10 km/h Conditions: Strong, Light Turbulence	Wing Type Rigid Hang Glider Wing: A.I.R ATOS VQ11 Launch Type: Foot	Summary Pilot misrigged glider while on the last day of a comp. Rib had not located on one side of the wing causing a flutter in the wing and a shudder on the basebar at speed. Pilot landed safely.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt

Date 23.08.2019 (E11987)	Pilot Male Age: 30 Rating: CP Flying Experience: 14 years 43 hours (1 hour) 69 flights (3 flights)	Location Milk Hill White Horse, Alton Barnes, UK Wind Strength: 0-5 km/h Conditions: Strong, Moderate Turbulence	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: Nova ION 2 Launch Type: Foot	Summary Pilot suffered a stall on approach to top land in breezy conditions. Pilot suspects encountering unusual gust while on the brakes caused stall. Pilot considered it a poor decision to land where he did.	Injury Pilot: Minor Injuries, Hands, Arms, Shoulder

Date 21.08.2019 (E11966)	Pilot Male Age: 57 Rating: P Flying Experience: 21 years 1050 hours (75 hours) 1000 flights (45 flights)	Location Milk Hill White horse, Pewsey, UK Wind Strength: 15-20 km/h Conditions: Strong, Strong Turbulence	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: Advance Bi Beta 4 Launch Type: Foot	Summary Tandem pilot suffered symmetric collapse at 20m but both pilot and passenger landed gently on feet. Pilot and passenger were then dragged until pilot regained control.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt Passenger: Unhurt

Date 20.08.2019 (E11978)	Pilot Male Age: 49 Rating: P Flying Experience: 27 years 500 hours	Location Woolacombe, Woolacombe, UK Wind Strength: 15-20 km/h Conditions: Moderate, Very Strong Turbulence	Wing Type Paraglider Wing: Niviuk Peak 4 Launch Type: Foot	Summary Pilot suffered asymmetric collapse and rotation when entering rough thermal at low level. Pilot struck ground as glider rotated. Pilot suspects being in the lee of higher ground was responsible for turbulence.	Injury Pilot: Minor Injuries, Feet, Legs

Last updated: 27 January 2026

Displaying page 76 out of 336

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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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