Otivar Paragliding Accident

AL Paraglider Rescued02Just before 16.00h on March 26th, a Polish paraglider misjudged his landing above Otívar and came down in a barranco – a large turnout of the emergency services took part in his rescue.

Piotr Wojda, 35, had fractured his arm and had pains in his lower back but it was a while before the emergency services could reach him. For the first hour he was unconscious.

First to arrive was the Guardia Civil followed almost immediately by the Almuñecar Fire Service. The Guardsman, Carlos, had arrived from Vélez Benaudalla – they are very thin on the ground in rural areas.

The first to reach the downed paraglider were his companions – there were six Polish pilots from their club, The Kampers – they had arrived in camper vans with all their flying equipment to spend the weekend launching from Granada’s most popular paragliding points.

The firemen had to use a chainsaw to cut through the vegetation, much of it gorse, to reach the victim and leave a cleared route to get the stretcher out. The victim’s Polish companions, on the other hand, had simply scrambled directly down in little more than T-shirts & trousers.

The Junta de Andalucía air-ambulance, based in Málaga, an Agusta-Westland AW109, arrived at 17.17h, flown by pilots Nuria and Ignacio with two paramedics aboard, Remedios and Francisco. The paramedics accompanied the firemen cutting their way through to the victim and his companions.

The air-ambulance helicopter is purely that, an ambulance, and is not equipped for rescue missions, therefore it has no hoist. For this reason the Guardia Civil helicopter was called in with their Eurocopter EC 135 carrying members of their mountain-rescue unit, the GREIM.

The GC helicopter arrived at 18.44h, flying from its base at Granada Airport. Unfortunately, the helicopter didn’t have a hoist either, so the victim was brought out through a combined effort of the firemen and Guardia Civil mountain-rescue personnel.

The victim was carried to the waiting Eurocopter to be flown to the PTS hospital in Granada – the air-ambulance paramedics had immobilised the victim’s injuries and his condition was stable, so as the Guardia Civil is based in Granada, it took the victim back with them.

Daylight was running out and it really didn’t give the Málaga helicopter time to fly to Granada and then back to Málaga before nightfall, so it returned directly.

What this incident highlighted, besides the efficiency of the Guardia Civil units, firemen and air-ambulance crew, was a lack of personnel owing to cuts.

There are several (061) Junta’s air-ambulances; four operating in the winter and five in the summer: one in Baza in the north of Granada, one in Málaga, one in Córdoba and one in Sevilla (during the summer there is also one based in the Hospital de Jerez).

There is one Guardia Civil rescue helicopter, which operates out of Granada Airport, and the Guardia Civil rural ‘foot soldiers’ are so thin on the ground that a patrol had to come from Vélez-Benaudalla for an incident in Otívar.

Two helicopters, a large fire engine, a smaller one (an adapted Landrover) and a Guardia Civil patrol car, two pilots, two co-pilots, two guardsmen, two paramedics, three mountain rescue personnel and three firemen, all mobilised for one Polish paraglider who had misjudged his landing.

All of them are very professional and even had time for an inquisitive reporter. Special thanks to Nuria & Ignacio, as well as Carlos.

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(News: Otivar, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucía)

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