First Time Hang Glider Realizes His Harness Isn’t Attached During a Terrifying Flight Over a Swiss Town

Gursk3 went hang gliding for his very first time while visiting Switzerland. While he was all set to ride tandem on a guided flight, the instructor forgot to attach the safety harness that would keep him firmly secured to the glider. Unfortunately, neither Gursk nor his instructor, realized this was the case until they took off soaring over the gorgeous Swiss countryside. Gursk did his best to hang onto the steering bar with his left hand and the instructor’s harness with his right during those terrifying few minutes.

The instructor repeatedly attempted to make a safe landing. Unfortunately, the lack of balance and the strength of the wind took them higher than planned, so when they finally reached the ground, they did so far too rapidly. Luckily, Gursk only suffered a serious but mendable fragmental distal radius fracture to his wrist from the landing as he very easily could have fallen from a much greater height with far more tragic results.

My first time Hang Gliding turned into a near death experience as my safety harness was never hooked to the Glider. For 2 Min. 14 seconds I had to hang on for my life! The landing was a rough one, but I lived to tell the story.

via Vint Cerf