Sunday July 28 Incident

[tetzen]

Hi everyone,

I understand many have a lot of questions following the fatal incident this past Sunday so I want to give a brief update. It has been a tough few days.

We are currently compiling reports and will have a detailed incident report to release at some point in the future. Many folks have provided me their account of what they witnessed that day. I appreciate those that have done so. If anyone else saw the incident firsthand or the moments leading up to it and is comfortable sharing in order to contribute to the report I would appreciate if you could send that to me.

To briefly state what I think many already know, George’s wing suffered an incident and went into a type of stall. He impacted the ground at the very upper end of the Edith Gap LZ. He was reached by pilots in the LZ approximately one minute later and was found unresponsive but still alive at the time. EMS arrived approximately 10 minutes later and he was life-flighted from the bridge to the UVA hospital in Charlottesville an hour later, where he eventually passed away at.

There were a number of pilots that assisted in rendering aid to George on Sunday. I want to commend all for their quick action and support for George. It’s comforting to know that so many of us were willing to immediately come to his aid even if we were not ultimately successful.

There are currently discussions on where a celebration of life for George will happen and as those are finalized the information will be posted. Thank you to all that have reached out to offer assistance so far.

On a separate note, the CHGPA Board is currently reviewing a number of proposals to address Edith’s Gap safety today. As we coalesce around more concrete ideas, they will be presented to the club for further input and discussion on our future policies at the site. We appreciate everyone’s input so far and do welcome suggestions.

It would be folly to say that we can completely eliminate all risk in this sport of paragliding and hang gliding and at our sites, but our aim is to drastically reduce any contributing factors and implement policies that will continue to support free flight and the usage of our sites in a safe manner. To that end, I hope in the coming days and weeks we will have some productive conversations that will increase our overall practice of safe and injury-free flying.

Richard

[krryerson]

I'm really sorry to hear this terrible news! George was such a wonderful person - always so kind and friendly. He would greet us hangis with a warm hug every time we saw him. This is such a heartbreaking day.
Knut