Shocked climber watches paraglider plunge to his death

Tari Sinclair stood frozen in horror as he watched a paraglider he knew plummet from the sky in a fatal crash on Mauao on Friday evening.

The Tauranga man had been climbing to the summit of Mt Maunganui on his 144th climb and joined two couples watching a paraglider move from side to side in the air about 6.20pm.

But then Sinclair recognised the paraglider. Sinclair had got to know him through his climbs because the man was often up there too.

“I’m always talking to him up there. I’ve always loved seeing him,” Sinclair said.

“He would always ask me ‘how many climbs now?’.”

Sinclair stopped to watch the paraglider, who was being filmed by the two girls and their partners, off the eastern side of the Mount.

“He was going like you do normally, then he just dropped, like how an elevator just goes down. I thought ‘oh my God, he might have gone in the water’.”

Sinclair, who has bad knees and a fear of heights, stood frozen as he processed what he had just seen, while the two men Sinclair was with scrambled down to the paraglider.

“It’s amazing how those two guys got down there and did CPR. It felt like an eternity.”

Sinclair said he was told there had been a sudden drop in wind and the paraglider had not survived the crash.

“I can’t believe what I saw. I just feel so sorry for his lovely partner. I’d like to give her a hug somehow.”

Senior Sergeant Rob Glencross described the man as a local but did not release his name.

“The paraglider landed about 100m into dense bush which required 4WD vehicles to reach.

“The man’s body was recovered by a team of emergency services personnel shortly after 8.30pm.”

Firefighters from Tauranga and Mount Maunganui helped get emergency services workers to the crash site, and a rescue helicopter was also sent to the scene.

Sinclair said he and the paraglider were talking only the other week about the paraglider crash that killed recently-engaged 28-year-old Josh Tingey in February.

“And now he’s gone, in the same way.”

A coroner found Tingey had either misjudged his own ability, or a sudden gust put him off course.

A Bay of Plenty Hang Gliding and Paragliding Club spokesperson confirmed the paraglider was a member and said they believed the man was flying alone, which was not unusual.

— Bay of Plenty Times