Zip line accident

Post Reply
Message
Author
Cacophonix
Chief Pilot
Chief Pilot
Posts: 8327
Joined: Tue May 02, 2017 10:14 pm
Location: Wandering

Zip line accident

#1 Post by Cacophonix » Fri Sep 28, 2018 5:20 pm

An elderly couple, anti-poaching lookout volunteers, spent over an hour caught up in a zip line in the Pilansberg Game Reserve in South Africa after their ultralight aircraft collided with the wire... apparently this is not the first time an aircraft has collided with the line.

Fatal Helicopter Accident

The line is not a high voltage cable as indicated by the ridiculous report in ZA Times.

Ultra light in Pilansberg.JPG
Ultra light in Pilansberg.JPG (20.73 KiB) Viewed 234 times


Spokesperson for the Aeronautical Rescue Coordination centre Santjie White said the aeroplane was attached to the Pilanesberg zip line.

She said the incident was called in at about 8:30am and rescue teams – from Mountain Club SA and the police’s air wing – were called in to assist. But getting the two occupants‚ a man and a woman‚ down would not be easy‚ and a second team had to be dispatched with more specialist equipment.

All the while‚ the occupants of the plane remained in danger.

Ultimately‚ after what White described as a “very difficult‚ technical rescue operation”‚ the two were carried out to safety. One rescuer went down the zip line and took the two out of the plane‚ carrying them to safety.
“They are safe on the ground.

“They were hanging on the line for quite a while. It’s the shock and all that stuff. They were incredibly lucky. But there are no injuries‚” he said.

Russel Meiring‚ spokesman for paramedic service ER24 which attended the scene‚ said: “Rescue personnel equipped both [occupants] with harnesses and began to lower them to the awaiting paramedics‚ 300m below. Once safely on the ground‚ paramedics found that both had fortunately escaped injury.

“They explained to paramedics that the only thing they could do was not to move as they were scared that the aircraft would fall.”

https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south- ... he-ground/


Caco

Post Reply