A 27-year-old Canadian paraglider who had gone missing was found dead, and a 47-year-old Austrian paraglider was rescued from the high mountains of the Dhauladhar range in Himachal Pradesh within the last 48 hours, officials said on Tuesday.
Both paragliders had flown in separately from the international Bir-Billing paragliding site in Kangra district and encountered emergencies at different locations. While the deceased Canadian paraglider was identified as Megan Elizabeth, the rescued Austrian paraglider was identified as Jacob.
“Megan’s glider crash-landed in the higher reaches of the Dhauladhar range on Saturday. She was found dead on Monday. As the rescue team retrieved her body this morning, we received another SOS regarding the Austrian paraglider, who was stranded at an elevation of approximately 3,302 metres in the mountains of Polling-Barot valley in Kullu district,” Sankalp Sharma, Baijnath Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM), told The Indian Express.
A member of the rescue team, Rahul Singh, had reached Elizabeth’s body on Monday evening and stayed there through the night, Sharma added.
“Megan Elizabeth was an experienced solo flyer. She had paid the fee for flying from the Bir-Billing paragliding site for at least one week. Elizabeth had taken off from Billing and was expected to land at Chogan, but lost her route and crashed near Talan Jot, north of the Himani Chamunda temple, at an altitude of about 3,900 metres,” Anurag Sharma, president of the Billing Paragliding Association, said.
Bir-Billing, an internationally acclaimed paragliding site, is managed under the Special Area Development Authority (SADA), headed by the SDM Baijnath in Kangra district. On Sunday, the Kangra district administration, in coordination with the Bir-Billing Paragliding Association, launched the rescue operation. The paragliding association arranged a helicopter and a team of rescuers to trace the missing paragliders.
While Jacob was dropped off at Chogan in Bir, Elizabeth’s body was brought to the Gaggal Airport in Kangra. Her body will be sent to New Delhi after a post-mortem examination and will be handed over to the Canadian embassy, officials said.
