Fiancee witnessed paraglider horror
Top pilot died after he skimmed power cables
THE fiancee of a paragliding pilot watched in horror as he was electrocuted and died after hitting power cables close to their home.
Leanna Bishop went into the garden to watch Wayne Seeley’s descent after he called from the air to say he would be landing in the grounds of a local school.
But as she looked up she saw sparks fly from his harness as it skimmed high-voltage cables.
There was a loud bang, a cloud of smoke and Mr Seeley, 41, who was among the top ten paragliders in the country, plunged to the ground. An inquest in Gloucester was told that emergency services were called but Mr Seeley was pronounced dead at the scene.
‘This was a freak accident,’ Miss Bishop, 37, told the hearing. ‘It doesn’t feel real.’ The accident, on June 2 last year, left more than 100 homes without power.
The court heard that Mr Seeley had texted Miss Bishop at 12.09pm to say he was on Selsley Hill, near Stroud, on the edge of the Cotswolds, and was about to fly. At 12.59pm he rang her from the air saying he was going to land in the field near to their home at Eastington. He had landed in the field three or four times before and urged Miss Bishop to go into the garden to watch.
The inquest was told that Miss Bishop saw him coming in to land as normal, and everything seemed to be going well. But as he crossed a row of trees on the edge of the
‘This was a freak accident’
field the base of his harness struck the 11,000-volt power cables. A male friend watching with Miss Bishop immediately ran towards Mr Seeley, who was unresponsive, while others called the emergency services. But a police officer informed Miss Bishop soon afterwards that he had died.
Pathologist Dr Matthew Beesley said Mr Seeley’s death was ‘consistent with that of electrocution’. The inquest heard that Mr Seeley had been paragliding for 25 years, having started at the age of 16.
He had obtained his British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association certification in 1996 and belonged to the Avon Paragliding Club.
He was active in the National Cross-country Paragliding League and had been rated one of the country’s top ten pilots since 2017. Mr Seeley had flown over the Alps and all over the UK. Just three months earlier he had completed a 70-mile cross-country flight, the inquest was told.
A formal investigation was carried out which determined that the flying equipment was airworthy and not considered to be a contributing factor to Mr Seeley’s death. He also had no drink or drugs in his system.
Assistant coroner Roland Wooderson recorded a verdict of accidental death and said that Mr
Seeley had probably died instantly. Miss Bishop said: ‘Wayne was loved by so many. I never knew what true love was till I met Wayne – he was my fiance, best friend, soulmate, protector and strength, who helped me through some tough times and pieced me back together.
‘Words don’t do him justice, he was so kind, caring, passionate, patient and funny... I’m just devastated, I will miss him so much.’