Paraglider dies on Mt Maunganui
Police confirmed the paraglider had been found at 5pm on Saturday afternoon.
A man has died, crashing while paragliding at Mount Maunganui on Saturday.
Emergency services were sent to the scene after reports came in he was found having crashed into a rock on the side of the mountain.
He was flying with the Bay of Plenty Hang Gliding and Paragliding Club dress up and spot landing day.
He was a club member and flying fully licensed in perfect con- ditions, a club member said.
Several members of the club, who attended the event, would not comment on the incident, as the man’s family was overseas and they wanted to wait for family to find out first.
Police confirmed the paraglider had been found at 5pm on Saturday afternoon, but would not say what state the glider was in. At 7.30pm the police confirmed the death.
The man is the second paraglider to die this year.
In January, David Michael Jongsma, 54, from Wanaka, died after crashing into rocks on the side of Wanaka’s Mt Roy.
Earlier this year a paraglider had a close call at the Mount, and the drama was captured on video.
Instagram user @draggonslayer was on the mountain, also known as Mt Maunganui, when he filmed a paraglider appearing to have trouble keeping his footing in the windy conditions.
Suddenly the paraglider is whipped into the air as a gust barrells through before being dumped unceremoniously against the side of the mountain.
The glider lost his shoe in the thundering impact but was otherwise unhurt.
He reports the missing shoe has been located.
The video was shared to Instagram page @kookslams where it has received more than 275,000 views and close to 3000 comments.
At the time of the incident, Bay of Plenty Hang Gliding and Paragliding Club secretary Dominique Le Sellin said Mauao was a safe place to paraglide and accidents like the one in the video were rare.
‘‘Generally it is quite safe as it is a coastal environment and we are not riding thermals,’’ she added.
Le Sellin refused to comment on Saturday about the death.