Lucknow man killed in paraglider crash was P3-qualified pilot: Training school

Ace pilot and founder of PG Gurukul Gurpreet Dhindsa, in a statement, said he wanted to prevent speculation and conjecture in respect of the unfortunate accident

A Lucknow man who died two days ago in a paraglider crash in Bir-Billing of Himachal Pradesh’s Kangra district, was a trained pilot and not a novice, the paragliding school where he was undergoing training has said.

Verma’s paraglider crashed into a hill at Chhotu Nullah soon after taking off from Billing on Friday. His body was recovered on Saturday (HT File Photo)

Ace pilot and founder of PG Gurukul Gurpreet Dhindsa, in a statement, said he wanted to prevent speculation and conjecture in respect of the unfortunate accident. Abhiuday Verma, 29, was a P3-qualified pilot, he added.

Verma’s paraglider crashed into a hill at Chhotu Nullah soon after taking off from Billing on Friday. His body was recovered on Saturday.

Dhindsa said Verma came to Bir on October 16 for a thermalling course. Previously, he had undergone P1, P2 and P3 courses, which included 5 days of ground training (3 days + 2-day refresher before P3), two instructional tandem flights and 11 high-solo flights of approximately 20 minutes each, which was as per the international norms.

In the thermalling course, Dhindsa said, pilots took off independently but were observed and given directions from the ground while staff also remained present at the take-off site for assistance.

Dhindsa said after there to four minutes of Verma taking off, he and his staff saw the glider stalling, probably due to excessive brake input, and descending rapidly in a candled state.

“I called the pilot on radio to ask him to deploy his reserve parachute, but a reserve was not seen to have been deployed till the glider disappeared behind the mountain,” he said.

Realising the gravity of the situation, Dhindsa said he informed Special Area Development Authority (SADA) coordinator Ranvijay and the pilot’s family about the incident. A search team had found Verma’s equipment on Friday while his body was located the next day.

“As the head of PG Gurukul, I have been training individuals to become paraglider pilots since 2002. Every year, approximately 50 students, domestic and international, are trained at Gurukul but no such incident has ever happened.”

“We are carrying out an investigation from our end. We will learn from the incident and the findings will be shared with the paragliding community to prevent such incidents in the future,” he said.