A climate activist known as the “human swan” for her paramotoring adventures has broken down in tears during an inquiry into a mid-air crash that left her co-pilot dead.
The fatal accident inquiry into the death of Dan Burton is being held at Tain Sheriff Court in Scotland.
Mr Burton, from Devon, died in the Highlands after colliding with Sacha Dench on 18 September 2021.
Ms Dench, who received serious injuries, was attempting a 3,000-mile trip around Britain by paramotor at the time.
Named the Round Britain Climate Challenge, the expedition had been intended to highlight the issue of climate change ahead of the Cop26 conference, which took place in Glasgow later in 2021.
Ms Dench had previously received acclaim for a similar expedition, which was recounted in the BBC documentary Flight Of The Swans.
On Monday, Ms Dench broke down several times while giving evidence. At one point, the inquiry was adjourned to allow her time to compose herself, and took an early lunch break for the same reason.
Ms Dench told the inquiry that she first met Mr Burton in about 2005 or 2006 during her time as a free diver, and that the pair had started flying paramotors together around 2012.
They had previously flown together on the Flight of the Swans expedition, and had also been planning a paramotor expedition in Africa when he died.
Asked for her assessment of Mr Burton’s level of experience with paramotors she replied: “Highly experienced – potentially the most experienced expedition pilot I know.”
Fiscal depute Jemma Eadie asked Ms Dench about the planning and preparation for the round-Britain expedition, which the inquiry heard had originally been expected to last eight weeks.
Ms Dench said it was originally envisaged as a continuous “circumnavigation” of the UK, but that this changed to only doing “a few segments” because of the batteries in the paramotors’ electric motors only lasting 30 minutes at a time.
The inquiry heard the pair agreed on take-off sites, landing sites and mid-way stopping points every evening and morning before flying, and that they could communicate while in the air through Bluetooth headsets built into their helmets.
Ms Dench said the headsets connected automatically when they were within “about 800 metres” of each other, and that they provided an “open channel” that did not need any buttons to be pressed to speak.
Asked what they would talk about she said: “We’d be chatting about the scenery, where we were going to, any changes in weather conditions.”
She said on the day of the crash the pair had been planning to land in a field “near Ullapool”, and that the area in which they had both come down had not been the planned landing site.
The FAI previously heard some evidence during hearings in May 2025 and in January 2026.
Ms Dench, from Australia, is known as the “human swan” for her adventures using a paramotor to follow swans migrating from Russia across Europe to the UK.
The inquiry continues.
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