As far as heart-pounding and harrowing video is concerned, the footage below of a hang gliding mishap at an extreme sports event in Norway may take the cake.
In late June, world championship hang glider Jon Gjerde was performing a few tricks for a crowd of on-lookers when his hang glider spontaneously broke mid-air. Amidst a number of “ohhhs” from the crowd, Gjerde — still attached to the hang glider — began to violently twist and turn as he steadily began falling back down to land.
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Thankfully, Gjerde managed to deploy his parachute before crashing back down to earth. The video below, which captured the entire incident, is truly jaw-dropping.
In the wake of the incident, Gjerde took to Facebook where he added some insight into what went wrong.
My Hanggliding accident last tuesday on Video. I am OK but still suffer from sore eyes and head-ache after serious negative G-force. after glider collaps, my harness was somewhat broken and I was sentrifuged head out. My vision failed and I struggled hard against g-force to get my rescue out.
On the GoPro it is possible to see details.
I have lots of speed and get an abrupt pullout by accident. The reason for this is to high speed, and bent elbows on the bottom of the dive.
I flew a Moyes Litespeed rx4 with racing wires. With standard (thicker) wires the glider may have stayed together (although not built for 160+ km/h…and G-force probably above 7?)
The following GoPro footage of the mishap offers an equally terrifying perspective on what went down.
