Incident Reports | Formal Investigations | Report incident | Safety

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 paraglider 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).

or and

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 2555 entries for paraglider wings

Displaying page 106 out of 256

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Date

Pilot

Location

Wing Type

Summary

Injury

Incident Reports

Date
30.10.2016

(E3975)

Pilot
Male

Age:
57

Rating:
P

Flying Experience:
17 years

200 hours
(10 hours)

100 flights
(20 flights)

Location
Fransham,
Norfolk,
UK

Wind Strength:
0-5 km/h

Conditions:
Calm,
Not Turbulent,
Flight In Clouds, Fog

Wing Type
Paraglider

Wing:
Ozone
Buzz Z4

Launch Type:
Winch/vehicle Tow

Summary
Paraglider pilot winched up with excessive force during a competition. Pilot landed safely.

Injury
Pilot:
Unhurt

Date
29.10.2016

(E4112)

Pilot
Female

Age:
39

Rating:
CP

Flying Experience:
13 years

70 hours

Location
Ager,
Catalonia,
Spain

Wind Strength:
10-15 km/h

Conditions:,
Light Turbulence

Wing Type
Paraglider

Wing:
Air Design
Rise 2

Launch Type:
Foot

Summary
The pilot lost control of the paraglider in close proximity to the hillside and impacted the ground sustaining fatal injuries.

Injury
Pilot:
Fatal,

Internal Injuries

Date
22.10.2016

(E3958)

Pilot
Male

Age:
57

Rating:
CP

Flying Experience:
11 years

15 hours
(20 hours)

85 flights
(35 flights)

Location
Bo peep,
Selmeston,
UK

Wind Strength:
15-20 km/h

Conditions:
Calm,
Light Turbulence

Wing Type
Paraglider

Wing:
Gin Gliders
Yeti

Launch Type:
Foot

Summary
Pilot attempted to top land close to a barbwire fence. Speedbar caught on fence then glider fell on fence.

Injury
Pilot:
Unhurt

Date
21.10.2016

(E4082)

Pilot
Male

Age:
59

Rating:
AP

Flying Experience:
26 years


Location
Villebois Lavallette,
Dordogne,
France

Wing Type
Paraglider

Wing:
Koch
Winch

Launch Type:
Winch/vehicle Tow

Summary
During a routine inspection of the weak link components of a twin drum Koch winch it was found that the aluminium cases that house the aluminium weak links had their ends burred over such that the link would not slide out of the housing. This rendered the weak link inoperative and the force required to break it would have been considerably more than the certified intended force.

Injury
Pilot:
Unhurt

Passenger:
Unhurt

Date
14.10.2016

(E4096)

Pilot
Male

Age:
48

Rating:
P

Flying Experience:
30 years


Location
360,
Bir,
India

Wind Strength:
5-10 km/h

Conditions:
Moderate,
Moderate Turbulence

Wing Type
Paraglider

Wing:
Bruce Goldsmith Design
Tala

Launch Type:
Foot

Summary
Pilot suffered an asymmetric collapse at low level while thermalling. Pilot was unable to regain control of the glider and deployed his emergency parachute. Parachute had insufficient height to deploy fully and pilot impacted rocks.

Injury
Pilot:
Fatal,

Head Injuries

Date
10.10.2016

(E3948)

Pilot
Male

Age:
40

Rating:
P

Flying Experience:
11 years

5 hours
(2 hours)

10 flights
(5 flights)

Location
Herne Bay,
Herne Bay, Kent,
UK

Wind Strength:
15-20 km/h

Conditions:,
Not Turbulent

Wing Type
Paraglider

Wing:
Ozone
Buzz 4

Launch Type:
Foot

Summary
While coastal soaring the pilot was blown back into rotor turbulence by strengthening wind.

Injury
Pilot:
Seriously Injured,

Feet, Legs

Date
09.10.2016

(E3924)

Pilot
Male

Age:
38

Rating:
CP

Flying Experience:
15 years

500 hours
(7 hours)

700 flights
(9 flights)

Location
Mundsley,
Norfolk,
UK

Wind Strength:
20-25 km/h

Conditions:,
Not Turbulent,
Front Influence

Wing Type
Paraglider

Wing:
Ozone
Rush 2

Launch Type:
Foot

Summary
Pilot was caught out by strengthening winds and was blown back into a village. While being blown back, pilot pushed off house chimney to avoid standing on roof before crashing through a telephone line and landing in conifers.

Injury
Pilot:
Unhurt

Date
02.10.2016

(E3954)

Pilot
Male

Age:
51

Rating:
CP

Flying Experience:
36 years


Location
Cow Close Fell,
Yorkshire Dales,
UK

Wind Strength:
5-10 km/h

Conditions:
Calm,
Not Turbulent

Wing Type
Paraglider

Wing:
Nova
Tattoo

Launch Type:
Foot

Summary
Pilot spun glider while soaring in weak conditions. Pilot crashed heavily.

Injury
Pilot:
Seriously Injured

Date
02.10.2016

(E3995)

Pilot
Male

Age:
55

Rating:
CP

Flying Experience:
14 years


Location
Oludeniz,
Turkey

Wing Type
Paraglider

Summary
During routine kit inspection before start of SIV, reserve deployment failure identified. Damage to harness had most likely happened during accident the previous year. Reserve retaining flap had ripped and reserve had fallen through the hole making deployment impossible. Reserve set up and internal parts of the harness had not been inspected since the accident.

Injury
Pilot:
Unhurt

Date
01.10.2016

(E3904)

Pilot
Male

Age:
38

Rating:
CP

Flying Experience:
20 hours

36 flights

Location
Not applicable,
Lewes,
UK

Wing Type
Paraglider

Wing:
Not APPLICABLE

Summary
On repacking parachute to new harness pilot found the chute would not deploy without pulling the velcro apart. Also had loose webbing to webbing connection.

Injury
Pilot:
Unhurt

Last updated: 27 January 2026

Displaying page 106 out of 256

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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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