Hang Glider Launches In Air Without Being Harnessed

This video is a total nightmare. What should have been a fun afternoon for this husband and wife quickly turned dangerous. This really shows the importance of following all safety rules and measures with any high risk activity or sport. The video was taken in Switzerland when a husband and wife ventured out into a hang gliding experience. The whole situation started out just as it was supposed to. The wife first launched with an experienced pilot so that she could enjoy the experience and be as safe as possible for the entire trip high up in the air. After that, the husband suited up to launch with his wife. The very beginning of the video shows a brief moment of vital information and depicts the cause of the problem. You may have to pause the video for a second to catch it.Show more

Viewers will see two circles drawn onto the screen. The left side of the screen shows a red circle, and the right side shows a green circle. Inside the green circle is the wife’s harness. Notice that her harness is very clearly attached to the flying contraption. However, inside the red circle viewers will notice that the husband’s harness is not attached to the mechanism whatsoever. This can have grave consequences, and this husband discovers that later on in the video.

Someone behind the camera counts to three when they are supposed to start running to launch themselves into the air with the glider. As soon as the gilder leaves the ground, there is an instant problem. The wife’s harness lifts her to where she is horizontal with the ground. This is what is supposed to happen. The poor husband, however, is not so lucky. We see his body drop beneath the level of his wife’s body, and instantly he realizes that he is not hooked into the right equipment. This is worse than a harness failure on a ropes course or anything else like that because of the sheer altitude that is achieved while hang gliding. This situation instantly turned monstrously dangerous.

It is definitely a nail biting scene as you watch the poor guy stranded in the air, trying to hold on to whatever he can grab, so that he does not plummet to the earth’s surface and to his certain death.

When they finally land back on solid ground, it is just in time before the husband loses his grip entirely. He did break his wrist when he let go the glider, but the results could have been much worse than that.

The husband describes his account as follows: "I went hang gliding in Switzerland on the first day of our vacation. My wife launched with another pilot first. She and I launched together after that. I held on for my life scared to death because my harness was never clipped in properly. I kept holding on until we got to the ground, and unfortunately I broke my wrist on the impact. My wife landed after I did, but she did not know what happened until we were on the way to the hospital."