NEW DELHI, Dec 26: Two people died in paragliding accidents in two incidents
in the last two days. One was South Korean Shin Byeong Moon while trying lift
in Gujarat and the other Maharashtrian tourist Suraj Shah in Kullu in Himachal
Pradesh due to harness failure in the tandem flight.
Shin Byeong Moon, 50, was killed when his paraglider canopy failed to open
fully. The accident took place at around 5.30 pm on Saturday at a school ground
in Visatpura village near Kadi town of Mehsana district. His friends took him
to a hospital nearby but died during treatment. Doctors said the cause of death
was cardiac arrest due to the shock.
Shin Byeong Moon with his friend had come to Vadodara to see another friend
who is a frequent para flier. His friends and the embassy have been informed.
The body will be sent to his native place in South Korea.
Suraj Shah, 30, from Maharashtra's Satara district who died in a fall during
paragliding in Dhobi area in Kullu on Sunday. His safety belt broke leading
to his fall, it has been stated. He and the pilot were taken to the hospital
by the locals where Suraj Shah was declared brought dead and pilot Vimal Dev
is undergoing treatment.
The post-mortem examination was performed on the body at a Government hospital
in Kullu and the body was handed over to Shah’s friend Aniktel Patil as his
parents wanted. The police are investigating. A case has been registered under
Sections 336 and 304A of the Indian Penal Code against the pilot, police said.
Suraj Shah had come in a group of four and had the booking for paragliding.
The Himachal Pradesh High Court had banned adventure sports, including paragliding,
in January last following a 12-year old Bengaluru boy's death from an accident
near the Bir Billing paragliding site. However, unauthorised paragliding has
been going on.
In both the cases, equipment failure was the cause of death. All harnesses
should have a parachute standby but that rule is not adhered to by the small
time organisers. There are plenty of such camps in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand
conducted by semi-skilled operators using poor quality and old equipments to
make money at any risk. The Uttarakhand high court had also recently restricted
such paragliding business in the State.
Accidents can occur while launching, soaring or even landing, mainly due to
error in calculations and adverse atmospheric conditions. Equipments if they
are good generally do not cause accidents.
