Two brits four wheels

After the hairy flight on the new wing I swapped back to my wing and was setting off to the cable car. Next to it was an outdoor cafe with musicians playing German oompah-woompah music. All very quaint and mountain living it would appear.

Then I had a loud bang, people started running in the direction I had come from and they were screaming. I turned and saw a body lying in the car park.

I thought ‘Shit someone has misjudged the landing and overflew into the car park or fallen or…’ I dropped my rucksack and with some other pilots ran over to assist the casualty in what way I could. The physical signs on the pilot were of severe electrical burns from where the pilot had flown into electricity cables overhead prior to falling onto the tarmac of the car park about seven metres below.

Within about fifteen minutes those assisting were joined by a couple of local medical staff, a policeman, then air ambulance, a road ambulance and another local medical person. The causality had seven medical staff treating him.

A paragliding pilot who witnessed the incident from the air (and also admitted that his perspective of height was imperfect due to his height relative to the speed-flying pilot) saw the pilot spiraling down towards the ground at high speed in tight spirals. Whether the pilot had intended to fly so low or he has lost control might be recorded on his helmet-cam, which went off with the police as evidence.

From conversations with local pilots Mürren is a hot spot for accident; it is a very popular site for speed-flying, paragliding acro and base jumpers alike.
After this incident I decided to fly again so that I could retain some sense of normality afterwards and not be deterred from flying by what had transpired. Although the flight turned out to be very pleasant in itself, as I was joining the landing circuit I saw something falling very fast in my side vision and then ‘Bang’ a shute opened: it was a base jumper opening his parachute at what appeared to be about 150 metres above the ground. This added to my already shredded nerves and decided that this was going to be my last flight of the day.

A translation from the local media makes the final point:
‘On landing, he fell into a power line and suffered severe burns. A rescue helicopter took the boy to the hospital where he died shortly afterwards. As a result of the accident occurred in the region on Sunday afternoon hours of a power outage. The Lauterbrunnen Valley is famous for its steep cliffs, popular for jumps with different flight aids.’