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)
