Man escapes with few broken ribs as glider crashes into tree
78-year-old British pilot discharged says gust of wind sent glider out of control at 1,000 feet
ABritish expatriate whose hang glider crashed into a tree as he was swooping down into a rocky valley in Jebel Jais on Saturday was discharged from hospital yesterday with “a few cracked ribs and bruises”.
David Willis, 78, brushed off the incident, noting “that the tree broke his fall” after a gust of wind knocked his glider out of the sky at about 1,000 feet.
A flight-simulator instructor based in Dubai, Willis told Gulf News in a phone interview that he launched his “oldfashioned hang glider where you hang in an A frame” from 5,000 feet about half way up a 15km road on the side of the mountain in Jebel Jais.
“This was my first time in Jebel Jais,” Willis said, recounting that “I was hit by a gust of wind and it dropped me into a tree.”
The glider came down and crashed into a tree in Wadi Lahasa in Jebel Jais at noon, about 200 metres from the mountain road.
A group of young men who witnessed the accident alerted the authorities and Willis was rescued.
Amazingly, Willis said his glider was none the worse for wear. “We packed it up and it seemed okay,” Willis, who has lived in UAE for 11 years, said.
The brush with death has not dampened his love for hang gliding, Willis said, adding that he will continue to pursue the aerial sport as he has done for decades.
“It was just one of those days,” he quipped.
Mohammad Rashid Bin Arshid, Director of Saqr Hospital, told Gulf News that the British man was discharged from the hospital yesterday as his condition improved.
Arshid said “tests and radiology reports revealed that he had fractures of three ribs and one lumbar vertebrae, in addition to scratches on the arms, and a slight bruise in a lung”.
Willis thanked the young men, Saqr Hospital and the National Ambulance crew in Ras Al Khaimah who rushed him to the hospital.