The immediate risks of paragliding are as obvious as they are scary. And daredevils do a good job of knowing them and burying them away. (That’s why they’re daredevils.) But the less-obvious risks can quite literally throw even the most experienced paragliders for a loop.
In the example below, a Russian paraglider was soaring above the Indian Himalayas in his Axis Mercury 2008 when, of all things, an eagle flew into his sling, collapsing his glider. You can almost hear the gears turning in the guy’s head as he tries to figure out his next move hundreds of feet above the ground.
Fortunately, the paraglider’s reserve chute carried him down to safety. After that, he spends a few hilarious minutes yelling obscenities at the confused eagle as he freed it from the chute lines. (Thankfully, he’s doing it in another language, so it’s safe for work, at least here in America.)
Scroll down to watch the whole ordeal unfold.
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