'Chute Saves Pilot's Life, Even Thought It Malfunctions

An Australian hang-glider pilot will actually live to get a refund on his malfunctioning emergency parachute. The Queensland Courier-Mail reports the 39-year old man was part of a group hang-gliding from Widgee Mountain, about 12 miles west of Gympie, Queensland.

One witness told the Courier-Mail that, soon after he launched from the east side of the mountain, the main spar on his glider collapsed. One man who saw the whole thing says "he fell virtually straight down" toward the ground, almost 400 feet below.

The pilot activated his glider's emergency chute. It only partially deployed.

And yet...

Just 35 feet above the ground, the chute snagged a tree limb. The pilot's fall was broken just before he hit the ground.

"He's dead lucky," said Energex Community Emergency Rescue helicopter pilot Creagh Meacham. "There's a lot of open spaces out there."

The pilot suffered a broken arm and a broken leg in the fall. Meacham said "He had very nasty injuries, but he'd probably be dead if he hadn't deployed the parachute."

FMI: www.hgfa.asn.au