First-time hang glider holds on for dear life after pilot forgets to strap him in

A FIRST-TIME hang glider has been forced to cling on for dear life after the pilot forgot to attach his harness.

Dramatic footage from the flight shows Florida holidaymaker Chris Gursky clutching to anything he can get his hands on as he quickly realises he’s not attached to the glider.

As he struggles to hang on metres above the ground, the pilot frantically tries grabbing his overalls while struggling to navigate them down a 1200m mountain in Switzerland.

Steering with just one hand, the pilot fails to bring them down safely on nearby land and inadvertently takes them higher over a wooded area.

Gripping tightly to the cross bar, Mr Gursky begins to drop well below the glider and appears to be just seconds from letting go as he holds on to the pilot’s leg. Yet remarkably he manages to hold on and as the glider approaches a field, he lets go moments before the pilot touches down.

Mr Gursky took to Facebook to explain his horrifying ordeal last month, revealing he thought he wasn’t going to make it.

“My body weight shifted straight down and I found myself hanging on for my life,” he said.

“I remember looking down and thinking this is it. I was losing grip with my right hand, that was holding onto a strap on the pilot’s right shoulder.”

On landing, Mr Gursky fractured his wrist and tore his bicep tendon while hanging on but said the injuries “beat the alternative”.

“The landing was a rough one, but I lived to tell the story,” he said.

And despite the negligence, Mr Gursky praised the pilot for his efforts to bring him down safely.

“While the pilot made a critical error in our preflight set up by not attaching me to the glider, he did all he could to get me down to the ground as quickly as possible.“

“I will go hang gliding again as I did not enjoy my first flight,” he joked.