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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 277 published incident report summaries for Flexwing Hang Gliders

Displaying page 1 out of 28

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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 06.08.2025 (F12914)	Pilot male Age: 66 Rating: Incident Pilot Flying Experience: 7 years 90 flights (2 flights)	Location Mendlesham, Ashfield, Suffolk, UK Wind Strength: 5-10 km/h Conditions: moderate (3m/s), moderate turbulence (occasional pilot action required to maintain control)	Wing Type Flexwing hang glider Wing: Wills Wing Sport 3 Launch Type: winch/vehicle tow	Summary The pilot made a cross wind landing approach which was not corrected in time for an into wind landing. The hang glider impacted the ground and the pilot sustained injury.	Injury Pilot: seriously injured (more tan 48h in hospital, fractures (except for finger, nose, toe), haermorrhage, ligament rupture), hands, arms, shoulder

Date 28.05.2025 (F12849)	Pilot male Age: 38 Rating: P Flying Experience: 14 years 600 flights (20 flights)	Location Tailbridge, Yorkshire Dales, UK Wind Strength: 20-25 km/h Conditions: calm (1 m/s), moderate turbulence (occasional pilot action required to maintain control)	Wing Type Flexwing hang glider Wing: Avian Puma Launch Type: foot	Summary The pilot was making a second flight on their new wing. After lift-off, the pilot pulled on speed to to fly away from the hill and brought about pilot-induced oscillations which worsened with increasingly large control inputs, ultimately resulting in a crash 30 seconds later in the bottom landing field, breaking an upright.	Injury Pilot: unhurt

Date 11.05.2025 (F12848)	Pilot male Age: 55 Rating: P Flying Experience: 9 years 126 flights (6 flights)	Location Pandy, Monmouthshire, UK Wind Strength: 10-15 km/h Conditions:, unknown	Wing Type Flexwing hang glider Wing: Aeros Discus Launch Type: foot	Summary On landing approach the pilot manoeuvred to avoid power lines and stalled the right wing, causing a sharp turn close to the ground. On landing, the pilot noticed that the VG was still on.	Injury Pilot: unhurt

Date 27.04.2025 (F12844)	Pilot male Age: 65 Rating: AP Flying Experience: 37 years 1000 flights (10 flights)	Location Mendlesham, UK Wind Strength: 0-5 km/h Conditions: moderate (3m/s), not turbulent	Wing Type Flexwing hang glider Wing: Moyes RX Pro Launch Type: winch/vehicle tow	Summary The pilot made a Controlled Airspace infringement, citing having the wrong airspace file set on their navigation instrument, and unfamiliarity with the local flying environment.	Injury Pilot: unhurt

Date 03.01.2025 (F12777)	Pilot male Age: 62 Rating: P Flying Experience: 37 years 1493 flights (37 flights)	Location Dunstable, Dunstable, UK Wind Strength: 10-15 km/h Conditions: calm (1 m/s), moderate turbulence (occasional pilot action required to maintain control)	Wing Type Flexwing hang glider Wing: Solar wings Rumour 1 Launch Type: foot	Summary The hang glider pilot was soaring in conditions busy with other traffic (paragliders, sailplanes). They found themselves in proximity to a sailplane. No collision occurred.	Injury Pilot: unhurt

Date 22.06.2016 (F11194)	Pilot male Age: 55 Rating: AP	Location Chabre,, Laragne Monteglin, FR Wind Strength: 5-10 km/h Conditions: moderate (3m/s), not turbulent	Wing Type Flexwing hang glider Wing: Avian Evo 3 Launch Type: foot	Summary While on day 4 of the UK National Hang Gliding Champs there was a mid-air collision involving two hang glider pilots. One of the pilots involved sustained serious injuries.	Injury Pilot: seriously injured (more tan 48h in hospital, fractures (except for finger, nose, toe), haermorrhage, ligament rupture), head injuries, cervical spine

Date 27.07.2014 (F10907)	Pilot male Age: 48	Location Devil's Dyke, UK Wind Strength: 0-5 km/h Conditions: calm (1 m/s), not turbulent	Wing Type Flexwing hang glider Wing: Avian Rio 2 Launch Type: foot	Summary Student was too high for landing approach having failed to execute simple turns during flight. Student landed crosswind in hedge and failed to let go of the uprights.	Injury Pilot: seriously injured (more tan 48h in hospital, fractures (except for finger, nose, toe), haermorrhage, ligament rupture), hands, arms, shoulder

Date 14.07.2014 (F10891)	Pilot male Age: 60 Rating: P Flying Experience: 51 years (20 flights)	Location Mendlesham tow field, Mendlesham, Suffolk, UK Wind Strength: 5-10 km/h Conditions: moderate (3m/s), moderate turbulence (occasional pilot action required to maintain control)	Wing Type Flexwing hang glider Wing: Aeros Discus 15 Launch Type: winch/vehicle tow	Summary 6-8mph 45% cross wind landing, gust/thermal on touchdown, got turned downwind and landed heavily.	Injury Pilot: seriously injured (more tan 48h in hospital, fractures (except for finger, nose, toe), haermorrhage, ligament rupture), hands, arms, shoulder

Date 16.03.2014 (F10835)	Pilot male Age: 42 Rating: None. Training - post EPC Flying Experience: 13 years 30 flights (1 flight)	Location Perran Sands, Cornwall, UK Wind Strength: 25-30 km/h Conditions: calm (1 m/s), light turbulence (no pilot action required to maintain control)	Wing Type Flexwing hang glider Wing: Avian Elan Launch Type: foot	Summary Student could not get glider turned into wind on final approach and crashed downwind into a caravan.	Injury Pilot: seriously injured (more tan 48h in hospital, fractures (except for finger, nose, toe), haermorrhage, ligament rupture), hands, arms, shoulder

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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