Paraglider Gets Stuck In Power Lines, Rescued After Three Hours

A paraglider who accidentally flew into the power lines in Northern California had to wait for over 3 hours before being successfully rescued.

The paraglider who was a part of a training exercise and was trying to land at the Yuba County Airport in Olivehurst, California, accidentally got trapped into the power lines, said the Yuba County Sheriff's Department in a press release.

According to officials with the Olivehurst Fire Department, when the first responders arrived at the scene Wednesday night, they found the paraglider facing towards the ground with the wires as his only support.

The paraglider was not immediately identified. According to Battalion Chief Randy York, he looked exhausted but his vitals were completely stable.

One of the eyewitnesses, Jimmy Comstock told KTXL station that he had seen two paragliders flying in the sky before one of them got separated and flew into the power lines.

“I saw two of them coming. One went that way and the other came over the trees, dipped down in the road then tried to get out of the road and then hit the wires," Comstock told KTXL News station.

Authorities said that the power was quickly turned off by the pacific gas and electric company to prevent the paraglider from being electrocuted.

“The difficulty was making sure that the lines were de-energized to make sure that our firefighters were safe before we could make patient contact,” York told ABC News. “Letting him know to stay in contact with the aircraft and not to reach out and touch us so that the aircraft stayed still.”

According to the information obtained from the U.S. Hang gliding and paragliding association, a total of two and seven members were killed because of the sport, in 2018 and 2017, respectively.