Cape Town - The body of a man who crashed into a mountainside while paragliding in Wolseley at the weekend has been retrieved.
According to emergency services ER24 spokesperson, Russel Meiring, a search had ensued for the man who went went missing while paragliding with a group of friends.
“(On Saturday afternoon), a male paraglider was declared dead on the side of a mountain in the Wolseley area in the Western Cape. ER24 paramedics were airlifted to the patient after his friends had noticed the man had gone missing while paragliding in a group and began to track him on a GPS device.
“On arrival at 7pm, medics and rescue personnel were lowered to where the patient was found lying. On assessment, medics found that the man showed no signs of life. Nothing could be done for him, and he was declared dead.
“Unfortunately, due to the heavy winds, medics could not retrieve the deceased in the evening. The deceased was retrieved the following morning by the AMS Helicopter,” said Meiring.
Meiring added that the exact details surrounding the incident are unknown, but local authorities were on the scene for further investigations.
The incident comes about month after a fatal paragliding incident on Lion’s Head where a German man succumbed to his injuries after crashing into the mountain. He was found wedged between rocks.
Advanced life support was administered and the man was airlifted off the mountain before being taken to hospital in critical condition. He died in hospital.
Cape Times