A 26-year-old woman died in a paragliding accident in Himachal Pradesh, India, on Sunday. The accident occurred in the Kullu district of the state as the pilot of the paraglider failed to properly secure the victim's safety belt.
The victim, identified as Navya, hails from Zahirabad in the Sangareddy district of Telangana. She fell to her death from a height of about 250 metres. The pilot has been arrested by the police.
According to local police officials, the woman's harness gave way a few minutes after she took off. She fell on the roof of a house and died on the spot. The woman's body has been handed over to her family. An investigation has also been launched into the incident, per Hindustan Times.
All types of adventure sports have some element of risk to life. Several such incidents are reported every year from across the world. Last month, a British base jumper lost his life when his parachute failed to open during a jump from a 29-storey building. The incident took place in Pattaya, Thailand.
The 33-year-old man, identified as Nathy Odinson, was a skydiver and base jumper. The police were called to the scene by locals who witnessed a man crashing to the ground through a tree.
The video of the incident had even gone viral on social media. It showed Odinson jumping from the building after giving a briefing. He can be seen wearing protective gear and inspecting his equipment before jumping.
Odinson had extensive experience in base jumping. He had 10,000 followers on Facebook and would often share photos and videos from his stunts with his followers.
In a similar incident, a 33-year-old British base jumper, Dylan Morris Roberts, died after his parachute failed to open during a jump in the Italian Alps last year.
An Australian man named Matthew Glen Munting lost his life in a similar incident last year. The 35-year-old man died after hitting a gully after jumping off Mount Cimone. He was one of the most experienced base jumpers in the world, having finished 400 jumps with a wingsuit and 3,000 with a parachute.
America's best known extreme sport athlete, Dean Potter, died in a wingsuit accident in Yosemite National Park in 2015. The 43-year-old crashed after jumping from the 7,500ft Taft Point promontory. Graham Hunt, a fellow base jumper, also died after they both failed to navigate a notch in the cliffs.
