Storm Pushes Paraglider To 24,000 Feet

News Discussion
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A Canadian paraglider pilot has a heck of a Himalayan adventure story to tell even though he was unconscious for a lot of it. Ben Lewis, who was five hours into a cross country flight in the Himalayas in the Indian State of Himachal Pradesh, was sucked up into a storm and spit out at more than 24,000 feet. According to Cross Country Magazine, the publication that chronicles such pursuits, Lewis posted earlier this month on its XContest site that he passed out from the G forces of being spun up into the maelstrom.

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/storm-pushes-paraglider-to-24000-feet
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I’m really surprised the wing stayed inflated. Or that it re-inflated. This is one lucky man. Hope he recovers soon.

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Awesome story; and I’m not using ‘awesome’ as hyperbole. I would have loved to see some GoPro/etc footage of that epic flight.

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@yokon965, follow the link to the Cross Country Magazine article above. It has a nice animation of the pilot’s track log during the accident flight.

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This is not even the most extreme flight of this sort. Read the Cross Country Magazine article linked to above. In particularly,

Most famously, German paraglider pilot Ewa Wisnierska, then 35, survived when she was carried “higher than Everest” to 9,144m while flying in Manilla, Australia in August 2007. China’s He Zhongpin, 42, died after being struck by lightning in the same storm.

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