STUCK IN MID-AIR, NO HARNESS.
An American tourist trying hang-gliding for the first time flew over a picturesque Swiss mountain landscape clinging to the pilot and a landing gear bar because his harness wasn’t properly attached.
A video shows Chris Gursky of North Port, Fla., struggling desperately to keep from falling to his death for more than two minutes.
“I looked down once and I thought to myself, ‘this is it, I’m going to fall to my death. I’m a goner’,” Gursky told Good Morning America.
After takeoff from a 4,000-foot ledge, Gursky dangles to the pilot’s left, clinging to the glider’s bar or the pilot himself, constantly trying to tighten his grip, the video shows.
Gursky finally ejected — while travelling at an estimated 70 km/h — right before the glider lands in a grassy field, suffering a broken wrist and a torn biceps tendon.
Gursky told Cross Country Magazine that he is not angry at the pilot. “I am past that phase. He did all he could and more. He is a good guy.”
The Swiss Federal Office of Civil Aviation said it planned to “reconstruct the events” of the flight.