Man falls from sky in paragliding incident in Mypolonga
A man has fallen from the sky in a motorized paragliding incident in the rural town of Mypolonga, on the western bank of the lower reaches of the Murray River, 90km east of Adelaide.
John Scott, 41, suffered life-threatening injuries in the incident at around 6pm on Sunday and was taken to the Royal Adelaide Hospital.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: The footage shows a man falling from the sky in a motorized paraglider crash.
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In footage of the terrifying moment obtained by 7NEWS, passers-by can be heard mentioning triple-0 and cursing as the parachute spirals towards the ground and plunges into a paddock.
The SA Ambulance Service told 7NEWS that Scott suffered serious hip and pelvic injuries in the fall.
Scott lives less than 1km from the paddock where he crashed and is often seen by neighbors gliding in the air over the cliffs.
7NEWS understands his partner was one of the first people on the scene.
Witness Mike Smith told 7NEWS he was on a boat on the Murray River with others when they saw the man fall from the sky.
“It was sailing away up there and it looked amazing and then it went to the other side of the river and it just started spinning and then it started getting out of control, you could tell wasn’t right. ” he said.
“The guy was like a rag doll on his bottom flailing around. Then we went behind the willows over there.”
Fellow witness Jack Hall told 7NEWS that he and others used jet skis to get through the trees to the wetland on the other side to locate the man, despite fearing “the absolute worst.”
When the injured man was located, he was still wearing the backpack motor that distinguishes powered paragliding from regular paragliding and told Smith that he “fell on his side – not his feet, not his head.”
“He was really calm, maybe shocked, but pretty relaxed,” Smith told 7NEWS, adding that Scott mentioned that the crash appeared to have been caused by turbulence rather than an equipment failure.
“We are all glad that he is still alive. We certainly didn’t expect him to be around.”
