A 27-year-old Canadian paraglider, Megan Elizabeth, has died after crash-landing in the Dhauladhar mountains in Himachal Pradesh. The incident occurred last week, and her body was recovered on Monday after a search and rescue operation. In a separate incident, two other foreign pilots, one from Austria and one from Russia, were rescued from the upper reaches of the Kangra and Kullu districts on Monday.
Elizabeth, an experienced solo flier, took off from the Bir-Billing site, a renowned paragliding location near Dharamshala, on Saturday, October 18, at 9:45 AM. She was expected to land at Chogan, but lost her way and crash-landed near Talan Jot, north of the Himani Chamunda temple, at an altitude of approximately 3,900 meters. Anurag Sharma, President of the Billing Paragliding Association, noted that Elizabeth was unfamiliar with the Dhauladhar region's topography.
Upon receiving information about the accident, the Kangra administration promptly launched a search and rescue operation. A team from the Billing Paragliding Association (BPA) conducted helicopter sorties in the Dhauladhar mountains. Rahul Singh, a member of the rescue team, was air-dropped near the crash site on Saturday evening but was unable to locate her. On Sunday morning, four more BPA team members were air-dropped and successfully located her body.
According to Suresh Thakur, founder and director of the BPA, Elizabeth may have been forced to crash-land due to a sudden weather change or a problem with her glider. Although she used her reserve glider, she sustained serious head injuries upon landing on the rocky terrain. Rahul Singh reached the crash site on Sunday night and found Elizabeth unresponsive. It is believed she died due to the extreme cold and injuries sustained during the landing.
BPA members carried Elizabeth's body down over 1,000 meters until a helicopter could airlift it to Kangra, where an autopsy was conducted. Veer Bahadur, Additional Superintendent of Police, stated that preliminary findings suggest Elizabeth succumbed to severe cold and impact injuries. Following the post-mortem, Elizabeth's body was cremated in Bir on Tuesday, in accordance with her wishes and Hindu rituals. Her partner, Jared, provided consent for the cremation.
In a separate incident on Monday, an Austrian paraglider, Jacob Krammer, 47, was rescued from the mountains of Polling-Barot valley in the Kullu district at an elevation of about 3,302 meters. He had lost his way due to bad weather after taking off from Billing on Sunday afternoon. Another paraglider, 38 year old Nikita Vasiltsov from Russia, also crash-landed near Patalsu peak in the Pir Panjal range near Manali. Jacob was rescued and dropped off at Chogan in Bir, while Nikita was also safely rescued.
Bir-Billing is a popular destination for paragliders, attracting hundreds of solo pilots from around the world every October due to its ideal thermal conditions. However, the site has also experienced frequent paragliding accidents and fatalities. Over the past five years, 26 paragliding crashes have been reported in the Kangra and Mandi districts, resulting in 12 deaths, including foreign nationals. Concerns regarding safety measures and monitoring at Bir-Billing have been raised following these incidents.
