Finland Times

 

Snapshoot of a hang glider taken from youtube. FTimes File photo.

A hang glider was killed in a crash on Saturday afternoon at Jämijärvi in Satakunta.

 

The 63-year-old victim hailed from Parkano.

 

The police said the accident took place at about 3.00 pm when the glider suffered a 50-metre crash immediately after taking off from Jämi airport.

 

The reason behind the crash could not be known immediately. The police said investigations were on to ascertain the reason of the accident and detailed information would be available on Monday.

 

Earlier, on Friday, a man flying a motorised para-glider was seriously injured in another accident at Joutsa in Central Finland.

 

Taavi Siitonen, chairman of a gliding committee, said they would not compare these two accidents with each other as the technologies involved are quite different. “They are two completely different devices, such as motorcycle and bicycle, although cycle is included in both the names.” 

 

Siitonen, however, said an accident of both categories of aircraft is quite rare.

 

He said one hang glider was killed in a previous accident five years back. 

 

Siitonen does not know exactly how many people are involved in the gliding hobby but estimates that thousands of people participate in gliding and motorized para-gliding.

 

Earlier, on April 20, eight of the 10 parachuters on board a small passenger plane were killed in a crash in the same area at Jämijärvi in Satakunta region.

 

The crash was probably caused by an up and down movement of the aircraft as a result of control problems.