Featured Image Credit: Kevin Philipp via Storyful
Topics: World News, Sport
Jess Hardiman
Terrifying footage shows the moment a paraglider starts plummeting to the ground after his lines got tangled in heavy winds, narrowly avoiding death. Watch the clip here:
Kevin Philipp was paragliding in Organya, Spain, when he was showing some flair in the sky doing 'acro', a freestyle discipline in the adventure sport that involves carrying out spectacular tricks mid-air.
Advert
But things soon turned hairy when his parachute failed to open, and he was forced to think of a plan B as he began falling to the ground.
Amazingly, Philipp lived to tell the tale and ended up sharing footage of the incident on YouTube.
In the video's caption, he explained how he had been performing an acro trick in 'strong turbulence' when his line got stuck.
He said: "Acro paragliding trick in strong turbulence went wrong. Break line got stuck.
Advert
"Falling into the lines and wing made the rescue parachute throw quite hard. The falling speed increased a lot due to the twisting wing."
The nail-biting footage shows Philipp twisting around in the tangled lines as he tried to wrestle himself out of trouble with just seconds to spare until he reached the ground.
Revealing how he eventually managed to get himself free, he continued: "Very last chance was to manually open the rescue package. Estimated time left about 1 second. This was not the day to die!"
Thankfully, after finally being able to open the emergency parachute, Philipp landed safely - no doubt in need of a very stiff drink.
Advert
“In acro paragliding we face a lot of tries and errors in learning the tricks," he added.
“With 2-3 rescue parachutes and a lot of height we can safely train this kind of sport. This occasion is quite unlucky and rare. Just to keep in mind.
“Fly high, land safe.”
Many people praised Philipp’s calm reaction in the face of what could have all too easily been a fatal issue.
Advert
One commented: “Insane! This is what fighting for your life looks like. Glad you won!”
Another said: “F**king hell that's terrifying. I'm glad things turned out well!”
A third said they were ‘shaking behind the screen’ as they watched on in horror, while a fourth added: “THAT WAS INTENSE.”
Others also asked why the reserves didn’t open, with one writing: “Why both reserves did not open? Bad packaging? You should look into that first.
"Good reaction shows exceptional situation awareness and experience. I think you are going to be fine.”
Advert
Philipp later clarified in the comments: “The handle was stuck in the lines so it couldn’t travel far enough to deploy.”