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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 flexwing hang glider wings 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 422 entries for flexwing hang glider wings

Displaying page 16 out of 43

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Date	Pilot	Location	Wing Type	Summary	Injury
Incident Reports

Date 19.05.2013 (E761)	Pilot Male Age: 61 Rating: CP Flying Experience: 17 years 12 hours	Location Montmin, France Wind Strength: 5-10 km/h Conditions:, Not Turbulent	Wing Type Flexwing Hang Glider Wing: Avian Rio Launch Type: Foot	Summary Pilot initiated ramp launch but was holding weight on uprights. Glider stalled off the end of the ramp struck a tree before spinning into smaller trees.	Injury Pilot: Minor Injuries

Date 12.05.2013 (E756)	Pilot Male Age: 37 Rating: AP Flying Experience: 26 years 600 hours	Location Mickfield, Suffolk, UK Wind Strength: 15-20 km/h	Wing Type Flexwing Hang Glider Wing: Wills Wing Talon Launch Type: Winch/vehicle Tow	Summary Having rigged and checked his glider quickly the pilot prepared for a winch launch. Immediately prior to launch, while clipped in and ready to go, a sudden increase in wind caused the nose wire catch to fail. The launch was stopped. No reason for the failure was found.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt

Date 20.04.2013 (E746)	Pilot Male Age: 28 Flying Experience: 58 hours	Location Darley Moor, Derbyshire, UK Wind Strength: 15-20 km/h	Wing Type Flexwing Hang Glider Wing: Wills Wing Falcon 3 Launch Type: Winch/vehicle Tow	Summary Having reached the top of the tow line the student found he could not release the line. The line was guillotined by the winch driver and the student followed emergency procedure and landed safely. A loose bolt on the release mechanism was found to be the cause.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt

Date 24.02.2013 (E711)	Pilot Male	Location Big Fat Repack, Reading, UK	Wing Type Flexwing Hang Glider	Summary During repack, parachute deployment handle was found to have pins taped up. Incorrect deployment bag/harness combination.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt

Date 24.02.2013 (E720)	Pilot Male	Location Big Fat Repack, Reading, UK	Wing Type Flexwing Hang Glider	Summary During a repack it was noted that the deployment handle had pins but there was nowhere for the pins on the harness. Parachute very difficult to deploy.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt

Date 27.10.2012 (E696)	Pilot Male Age: 64 Rating: CP Flying Experience: 50 years 2000 hours 2000 flights	Location North Hill, Minehead, UK Wind Strength: 30-35 km/h Conditions:, Moderate Turbulence	Wing Type Flexwing Hang Glider Wing: Moyes Litespeed RS Launch Type: Foot	Summary Pilot made inadequate run on take off in marginal conditions. Glider dropped a wing and rotated back into the hillside before ground looping.	Injury Pilot: Minor Injuries, Head Injuries

Date 11.08.2012 (E664)	Pilot Male Age: 36 Flying Experience: 14 hours	Location Mendlesham, UK Wind Strength: 15-20 km/h Conditions: Calm, Not Turbulent	Wing Type Flexwing Hang Glider Wing: Avian Rio Launch Type: Winch/vehicle Tow	Summary Student allowed glider nose to come up during initial tow and weak link snapped. Glider recovered and dived. Pilot impacted chest first.	Injury Pilot: Seriously Injured

Date 11.08.2012 (E665)	Pilot Male Age: 51 Rating: P Flying Experience: 37 years 1000 hours 1000 flights	Location Mendlesham, UK Wind Strength: 15-20 km/h Conditions: Calm, Not Turbulent	Wing Type Flexwing Hang Glider Wing: Airborne C2 Launch Type: Winch/vehicle Tow	Summary Shortly after the launch the pilot discovered the second tow line was hooked over the release levers. Glider entered lockout and winch man cut power and line enabling pilot to make recovery and land.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt

Date 26.07.2012 (E685)	Pilot Male Age: 57 Rating: AP Flying Experience: 41 years 1000 hours 1000 flights	Location Chabre, France Wind Strength: 5-10 km/h Conditions: Moderate	Wing Type Flexwing Hang Glider Wing: Wills Wing T2C Launch Type: Foot	Summary Pilot encountered lift on landing and glider turned. Pilot recovered but landed still turning. Glider hit the ground with one upright and spun round. Pilot unclipped the glider was flipped over by gust of wind causing some damage.	Injury Pilot: Unhurt

Date 10.07.2012 (E662)	Pilot Male Age: 69 Rating: CP Flying Experience: 49 years 880 hours	Location Woolacombe, UK Wind Strength: 25-30 km/h Conditions:, Strong Turbulence, Rain, Snow	Wing Type Flexwing Hang Glider Wing: Moyes Xtralite Launch Type: Foot	Summary Pilot approached top landing with insufficient airspeed and glider stalled. Base bar hit ground and pilot swung through.	Injury Pilot: Minor Injuries, Hands, Arms, Shoulder

Last updated: 27 January 2026

Displaying page 16 out of 43

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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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