Paraglider survives – A paraglider in Austria survived being hit by a plane mid-air after the aircraft shredded her canopy. Video shows her activating her emergency parachute and dropping toward the ground before landing relatively unharmed in the Schmittenhöhe area near Zell am Se
A plane clipped a paraglider mid-air near Zell am See, and for a few terrifying minutes, it looked like the sky had decided everything.
In footage shared online. a paraglider—identified only as Sabrina on social media—sends up an emergency parachute and plunges through the air after the plane shreds her canopy. The incident began on May 23. when a plane buzzes by and tears her sail to pieces while she’s flying over the Schmittenhöhe mountain region in northern Austria.
Sabrina appears to react fast as the danger unfolds. She reaches for what she needs. removes the emergency parachute from her bag. and throws it into the air to slow her descent. The clip then captures the long. steep fall toward the ground. punctuated by Sabrina’s occasional screams. before she hits the dirt relatively unharmed.
The woman says May 23 will always be “like a second birthday,” and she knows how lucky she is to be alive. She reports suffering a few bumps and bruises, and says she’s doing alright overall.
Police say the 44-year-old Austrian had started from Schmittenhöhe and was able to pull the rescue parachute in time to land safely shortly after the incident on Saturday. A police helicopter then picked her up and transported her to a local airport.
The exact cause of the accident is still under investigation.
Austria paraglider plane Zell am See Schmittenhöhe Cessna 172 emergency parachute aviation incident social media video Sabrina