Cessna Crashes Into Paraglider Above Austrian Alps, Woman Survives
A shocking video of a 44-year-old paraglider from Austria is spreading online after she narrowly avoided a fatal accident.
Shortly after taking off from Mount Schmittenhöhe, her paraglider was struck by a small Cessna 172 aircraft, forcing her to save her life with an emergency parachute.
sab_thi, Instagram
The aircraft hit the woman's paraglider during her descent, and the plane's propeller shredded the canopy so badly that she immediately began falling toward the ground.
Near tragedy in the Austrian Alps
According to Austrian media reports, the woman is an experienced 44-year-old paraglider pilot, and only seconds separated the incident from a deadly outcome.
The paraglider, who comes from Upper Austria, experienced the terrifying mid-air collision on Saturday afternoon while descending from Mount Schmittenhöhe, located around 37 miles (60 kilometers) south of Salzburg.
Cessna aircraft crashes into paraglider
The woman had planned to fly toward the village of Piesendorf when a Cessna aircraft piloted by a 28-year-old man from Tyrol collided with her paraglider.
"I still can't believe I'm sitting here writing this, while apart from some nasty bruises and heavy impacts, nothing worse happened to me," wrote the 44-year-old paraglider pilot named Sabrina in her social media post.
She deployed her emergency parachute 7 seconds after the collision.
The 28-year-old pilot later told Austrian media that he was unable to avoid the paraglider. The aircraft's propeller completely tore apart the main canopy, forcing the woman to activate her emergency parachute before safely descending to the ground.
Paraglider survives by miracle
The pilot also landed safely at the nearby Zell am See airfield. It was an extraordinary stroke of luck that nobody involved suffered serious injuries.
Following the dramatic footage that shocked viewers worldwide yesterday, Austrian media described the 44-year-old woman's survival as nothing short of miraculous.
