Tag: paragliding risks

Paragliding is as safe as you make it. The safety checks, quality of equipment, preparedness, wind, air pressure and visibility are the main factors that decide how safe the flight would be. With a large number of paragliding sites came up in recent years, Himachal has emerged as the top destination for paragliding in the country. With nearly a lakh tourist trying hand at (tandem) paragliding, Kullu-Manali tops the list in terms of number. And the Kullu district is also topping the list of most fatal paragliding accidents. Five persons have died in four accidents this year only while many have sustained injuries. Human error is the main reason behind maximum accidents. Tourists generally go for a tandem flight but nobody asks pilots for their license, registration and quality of the equipment. In many accidents, pilots were found to be flying without a valid license and registration with the tourism department. The pilots, who always remain in hurry to finish the flight to catch another customer, never brief the dos and don’ts to the customers who always remain in suspense that what to do next. Almost 100 per cent of the clients here are tourists. On Monday, a tourist from Chennai was killed in similar accident where tourist slipped off the safety harness and fell on the ground from altitude of hundreds of feet near Falayan in Kullu. He died on the spot. The matter, according to police, appeared to be negligence in safety check. Similar incident had happened in May 2015 when a Mumbai tourist had died of harness failure at Solang valley. Falayan, Solang, Majhach, Diyar and Kharahal are the main paragliding spots in Kullu district where thousands of tourists enjoy joy-rides. The most operators at these sites are not following the proper safety procedures. While some are