On Saturday evening, we received an emergency call: a 42-year-old paraglider pilot crashed into the hillside near the summit of Kopasz-hegy, shortly after launching from the high start area above Csákberény. He suffered multiple fractures.

Following the emergency call received at 6:00 p.m., we issued an alert and began coordinating the rescue operation. We expected that the first team to arrive would be our nearby colleagues from the Bakony Cave Rescue Service, as they are located closer to the area and had just finished a demonstration at the local celebration in Sóly, meaning both the team and their equipment were likely still assembled.

In response to the alert, in addition to our 18-member team, 4 volunteers from the Bakony Cave Rescue Service and 2 from the Mór Volunteer Fire Department also joined the operation. While the alerted teams were preparing and approaching the accident site, our coordinator tried to accurately pinpoint the casualty’s location. One challenge was finding a suitable staging area in the narrow streets at the edge of the village - a spot with cell coverage, enough space for many arriving vehicles, within short distance of the injured pilot, accessible for the ambulance, and ideally not disrupting the lives of local residents.

Once the pilot — who had been lying injured on the hillside for nearly an hour — was reached by the first responders from the Bakony Cave Rescue team, medical care could begin. The man seemed to have serious injuries, including fractures to his hand and ankle. He was treated on site by our doctors and paramedics from the National Ambulance Service: his broken limbs were immobilized with splints, he was given strong pain relief, and his condition was stabilized for evacuation.

Meanwhile — and while the last cave rescuers were arriving at the designated assembly point — we set up safety and hauling rope systems on the steep, bushy slopes, which was interspersed with unstable, crumbling terrain ledges. These fixed lines were crucial, as a single misstep by any one of the six rescuers carrying the stretcher could have caused the patient to tip dangerously, worsening his already painful injuries.

The injured man was carried on one of our special stretchers designed for cave and mountain rescue, over a vertical elevation of about 90 meters and a horizontal distance of roughly 400 meters, by hand, often passing the stretcher from person to person. He was transported to the garden of a hillside house accessible by road, and at 9:45 p.m., he was handed over to an ambulance unit from Fehérvár. They transported him to the Traumatology Department  for further treatment and examination.

This nighttime rescue wasn’t our only callout that day: earlier in the afternoon, we also received an emergency call from near Kesztölc, where another paraglider had landed in a tree - fortunately, without injuries.

We would like to thank all the volunteers from our partner cave rescue organizations, the responding crews and duty officers of the National Ambulance Service, and the patient residents of Csákberény.

We wish the injured pilot a speedy recovery, and many more safe and beautiful flights in the future!

Photos: Márton Kovács (BMSz)

The next story tells the background of the paraglider accident and the rescue operation that happened on 11 th of September 11, 2024, Wednesday afternoon from three different point of view. Feri is the paraglider, who suffered the accident, Joci, his friend who tried to help him by himself and finally from the aspect of BMSZ – the Hungarian Cave Rescue service, who performed the rescue.

Feri, the paraglider: It started out to be a pretty ideal time for a long-distance flight. I managed to be the first to take off from Vértesszőlős and the first to land in Szárliget... I watched 5 paragliders in disgust as they flew about 300-400 meters above me and survived... That's okay, it is how it is. I decided to go back because the bad weather was coming and I wanted to fly before it. After 3 o'clock in the afternoon I was at the starting point again, with 3 other pilots. I sulked and told that it didn't work out at Szárliget, so now I do not even plan to go far, I would only fly locally. I took off after half past four, and almost immediately the current lifted me up with an ascent of over 1,000 meters. So I decided to head for Tornyópuszta - to my surprise, everything worked out well...

The last weekend of this year's summer brought beautiful weather, perfect for flying. None the less, there were two accidents in different parts of the country concerning paragliders.

The first accident occurred on Friday afternoon in Budapest, on the Hármashatár Hegy. After receiving an alert via SMS, two rescuers specialised in tree climbing were dispatched following a short briefing. The paraglider pilot was able to provide his exact location, making it easy to locate him.

Upon arrival, they found a man stuck in the branches of a tree, approximately 9 meters above the ground. His position was stable, and he was not injured in the landing.

A paraglider suffered a rough landing after the take off his flight in Buda - in front of the Hármashatár-hegy airport (mainly small and glider planes). He slammed around 50 m lower his start point – into a middle of a stony and bushy brae. His mates immediately warned the Hungarian Cave Rescue Service (BMSZ) on its dedicated number (+ 36 30 79 70 79) at 13:30 on the sunny Sunday.

The alarm centre of BMSZ alarmed the central division – the fastest members reached the injured at a bit later then 2pm and immediately started the medical attendance of him. The medical staff of the cave rescue service did his medical examination, upgrade for transport – then handed over for transport the other division of the rescue service, who was presented by 17 members by that time.

The action leader decided to take him uphill to the starting point, fixed to a special stretcher: as the injured paraglider had strong pain and there was a risk of a backbone break as well.

March 6, 2022. The early afternoon the emergency phone rang. On the other side of the line is a parachute pilot, who hang on the tree in the wooded part of Óbuda (this is the 3rd district of Budapest).

Fortunately, she was not injured, but she was hanging on a 30 feets high on the tree, and unable to come down on her own.

Some minutes later we sent an alert to the Tree Rescue Forces, for which four rescuers soon applied.

Gábor Berta was the nearly and he started immediatly.

Gábor arrived at the scene with the equipment about 1 hour after the accident. The pilot lady sent her position on Google Maps, so it was not so difficult to find her in the dense forest.

She hung on a storm-damaged oak tree, about 30 feets high. The parachute was tangled in the dense shoots of the broken tree.

Luckilly the pilot was not stuck and could move her limbs. After the rescue the second task was the parachute untying from the tree. The cord was tangled but in the end the parachute was released step by step without any destruction.

The son of the paraglider in trouble provided the following information from the ground: the paraglider is stuck about 6-8 meters high, has no injuries, is hanging approximately 2 m far from the trunk of a thicker tree, but unable to reach it. They could not provide their GPS coordinates.

In the meantime, we sent a longer ladder to the location.

We still could not get the GPS coordinates of the victim, but we received the phone number of the person who was there, which we shared with the cave rescuers who were on their ways.

In the forest we used a ute to get to the paraglider. We got to the troubled person before 5 pm and upon finishing the rescue process we lowered the paraglider safe to the ground, before 6 pm.