One man was killed and another injured following a paraglider crash at an acrobatic air display in Noda, Chiba Prefecture, on Sunday.
According to police, Hideto Nakajima, 53, and Akihide Kubishiro, 58, were flying powered paragliders over Noda Sports Park in front of 150 onlookers at around 9:30 a.m. as part of the Noda Air Festival 2011 at the time of the incident.
TV Asahi reported that Nakajima attempted to turn his paraglider, at which point he collided with Kubishiro who was flying alongside him. Both paragliders then lost control and crashed into the ground. Both men were rushed to hospital, where Nakajima died two hours later. Kubishiro sustained several broken ribs, TV Asahi reported.
No other casualties were reported. Police are continuing to investigate the exact cause of the accident.
© Japan Today
15 Comments
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nandakandamanda
bonword, your post makes sense. Thanks.
bonword
Right I am quite tired of reading some of these comments posted by people who do not take a few moments to think about what is reported.
Let's see here:
Other people assert that the first flyer, Nakajima-san, deserves a darwin award...
Well, let me throw a wrench into your works.
1) They were flying in formation. 2) Nakajima-san turned. The other pilot did not. 3) We do not know if their plan called for turn at this point or not. 4) We do not know if Nakajima-san turned on time or if the other pilot failed to turn in time 5) We do not even know if Nakajima's craft suffered a mechanical failure 6) Taking it even further, we do not know if Nakajima-san suffered a heart attack, or other type of attack causing him to twitch at the controls, and crashing his craft.
There are a lot of things still unknown about this event, hence the police are investigating. What we do know though, is that some people decided to assume and judge immediately without all the facts.
Fadamor
Your comment is basically true for fixed wing aircraft where the airspeed usually dominates any crosswind component, but powered paragliders are S L O W and light. Crosswind gusts are going to affect them much more than they would a fixed-wing aircraft and could easily exceed forward airspeed. As you point out, however, there is not much information on the crash and speculation is pretty much pointless.
nath
@Fadamor and whiskeysour - when two aircraft are flying in close formation, they're affected by the same gusts and changes in wind direction at almost exactly the same time. An updraft that hits one will hit both. This applies to paragliders as much as any other aircraft.
I've piloted prop planes in close formation (<10 feet wingtip-to-wingtip) and found that it's not hard, though the concentration required will take it out of you. After an hour of it, my shirt was soaked and I was ready for a nap.
Based on not much information in the article, I would guess that one of the pilots lost his place in the choreography. Very sad.
Fadamor
Formation flying is risky anytime and in any aircraft. Doing it in paragliders seems foolish because they are more susceptible to wind gusts and up/downdrafts. I once got a chance to do some close-in formation flying in a T-34 Mentor and I still remember the stress of maintaining position as we passed through updrafts.
nandakandamanda
Hmmm... you guys have given me minus SEVEN! That's pretty harsh.
Anyway I stick by it. Maybe they were friends, but if you pull a turn suddenly when you are flying alongside someone, (as the article says) what do you expect? You're gonna hit. And I am sure it happened in a split second. Oops... and that was it. Do something really stupid and instantly regrettable. Darwin moments happen like that.
Boo points? Sure, bring 'em on.
(But I am glad in this case that the sensible one survived.)
whiskeysour
Paragliders shouldn't fly in close formation.
Wind strength can cause them to collide.
wtfftw
Wasn't there just another paragliding accident last month that fractured a little girl's skull?!
Maitake
Yes... yes. I'm sure they are.
nath
I ment literally in meters or kilometers or miles or whatever. Anyone who thought otherwise should give themselves a minus.
darkbob
Ditto ebisen.
nath
Do you mean physically or Spice wise Al-san?
nath
How high were they? Does anyone kno?
ebisen
nanda - paragliding surely beats sitting in front of a computer and making pointless comments about Darwin...RIP to the pilot,
nandakandamanda
Well there's a Darwin moment.
Sad the guy lost his life, but I guess they were doing what they loved.