Image Credit: Freedom Flight Park
July 13, 2023 - 3:47 PM
A 63-year-old man died this morning while taking paragliding lessons in the North Okanagan.
Freedom Flight Park business owner Dave Underwood confirmed the 63-year-old died after falling about 25 feet during a solo flight at the Lumby-based Paragliding school.
Underwood said the man was an experienced hand-gliding pilot who was taking paragliding lessons.
During the lessons, paragliders are pulled along flat ground by a winch to get into the air.
Underwood said yesterday, the man had done four successful flights from the flat runway.
This morning, July 13, from the runway he reached about 20 to 25 feet in the air.
"Just after he got the wing up... his arms locked out... essentially he stopped the glider from 20 feet up, 25 feet up and fell hard on his back," Underwood said.
It's not yet known whether the incident was caused by the man going into medical distress.
The business owner didn't want to give the man's name as he wasn't sure if all the next of his kin had been informed.
Underwood expressed his condolences to the man's friends and family.
He said the matter was now in the hands of BC Coroners Service.
According to its website, 150 students have graduated from the paragliding school in the nine years it's been running.
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