Still smiling, incredibly ... Ewa Wisnierska today after surviving her high altitude ordeal. Photo: Stefan Mast
Posted on 02/16/2007 2:55:32 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Australia - A German paraglider survived lightning, pounding hail, minus 40-degree temperatures and oxygen deprivation after a storm system sucked her to an altitude higher than Mount Everest.
Ewa Wisnierska, 35, passed out due to a lack of oxygen and flew unconscious for up to an hour covered in ice after reaching an altitude of 9947 metres - near the cruising height of a jumbo jet.
The champion sportswoman's survival was like "winning Lotto 10 times in a row", Australia's most experienced paraglider says.
Wisnierska says experience told her she had no chance of survival, but a doctor told her that blacking out had saved her.
"It was because that I got unsconscious because then the heart slows down all the functions - it saved my life," she told ABC radio.
Froze to death
A Chinese man who flew into the same storm near Manilla in northern NSW on Wednesday did not share Ms Wisnierska's luck.
He Zhongpin, 42, was found 75 kilometres away from his launch site, and most likely suffocated or froze to death after being sucked into the storm, hang gliding experts say.
Ms Wisnierska's top speed of ascent was clocked at 20 metres per second and her descent at 33 metres per second by an on-board tracking system, she told ABC radio.
She described the violence of the storm system as "amazing".
''You can't imagine the power - you feel like nothing, like a leaf from a tree going up,'' she told the ABC.
"I was shaking all the time - the last thing I remember it was dark, I could hear lightning all around me.
"I knew I was in the middle of the thunderstorm and I could not do anything.
I knew the chances to survive are almost zero
"From the theory, I knew the chances to survive are almost zero, I knew I can only have luck, I can't do anything - and I got it."
Wisnierska had been training for the upcoming Paragliding World Championships when she was sucked into the violent storm.
She regained consciousness in mid-air up to an hour later.
"I wanted to fly around the clouds but I got sucked 20 metres per second up into it and started to spiral," she told smh.com.au.
"After 40 minutes or an hour, I woke up and I was 6900 metres.
"I was still flying but I realised I didn't have the brakes in my hand.
"I saw my hands and the gloves were frozen, and I didn't have the brakes, and the glider was still flying on its own.
"I was thinking I can't do anything so I only have to wait and hope that the clouds were bringing me out somewhere.
And then I woke up
"And then I woke up and was thinking I was maybe unconscious for one minute.
"I didn't know I was unconscious for so long."
Godfrey Wenness, the president of the Manilla Sky Sailors club and organiser of the upcoming Paragliding World Championship, said Wisnierska's tale of survival was mind-blowing.
"It's like winning Lotto 10 times in a row," he said, noting that the previous altitude survival record for a paraglider was 24,000 feet.
"[Wisnierska] flew underneath a storm cloud and got sucked up to 30,000 feet. She was unconscious for about half an hour. She regained consciousness at 20,000 feet and then flew down and landed safely.
"She was covered in ice. She suffered from severe frostbite. The temperature at that altitude was about minus 50 degrees. It's higher than Mount Everest."
Mr Wenness said her injuries were severe.
Her ears nearly got frozen off
"She's got bruises all over her body from the hail stones and she's recovering from frostbite to her extremities. She's got bandages over her head because her ears nearly got frozen off."
"She just remembers going up, lightning around her in the cloud and she doesn't remember anything until coming to again."
He said the size of the hail stones was up to 15 centimetres in diameter.
"Apples, oranges, up to rockmelon size. And her glider kept flying perfectly which is the amazing thing in this whole thing.
"Basically she can't believe that she's alive.'
Sergeant Scott Tanner of Manilla police said Wisnierska landed between Barraba and Niagra, 60 kilometres away from her launch site.
"She was treated in hospital and discharged with frostbite injuries to her face," he said.
A Bureau of Meteorology spokesman said the temperature in the storm at 9,000 metres would have been lower than minus-40 degrees.
Body found 25 kilometres from Bingara
The body of Mr He was found by the Westpac Rescue helicopter 25 kilometres south-east of Bingara in northern NSW about 2pm yesterday.
He, a member of the Chinese national paragliding team, was in training for the Paragliding World Championships, which start next week in nearby Manilla.
The paraglider, who had 10 years' experience in the sport, was last seen about 3pm on Wednesday as thunderstorms were moving into the area.
Hang Gliding Federation of Australia general manager Chris Fogg said Mr He was probably sucked into the cumulonimbus storm system and propelled to high altitude.
"We assume he was taken to an altitude where he may have suffocated and may have become radically chilled," he said.
"At the top of thunderstorms is typically where hail forms and there's lots of agitation and turbulence.
Below zero
"I understand he was above 9000 metres so that's below zero [degrees].
"This system one sounds as if it was pretty strong - he could have been taken up at 1200 feet a minute and beyond. "Most pilots will try to get down to the ground before they get close to something like that."
The glider piloted by Mr He would have continued flying even if he had been unconscious, Mr Fogg said.
Mr Wenness yesterday said the paragliders were among 200 people taking part in a routine training flight.
"The other flyers in the area had given the stormclouds a "wide berth", he said.
"Maybe he was trying to thread the needle between two cells, but we don't know," he said.
Mr Wenness said more would be known after data retrieved from the GPS instruments carried by the man had been used to map out his exact flight path.
Storm cell building
Mr Wenness said the storm cell had been building since the early morning, and all paragliders had been briefed about the danger before beginning their training flights.
"You do not fly anywhere near them - not even 747s fly through storm cells," he said.
Mr Wenness said if the paraglider had deliberately steered into the storm cell, it was not just a risk but a decision that was "99.9 per cent" likely to lead to his death.
The Paragliding World Championships begin in Manilla on February 24. It is the first time the event has been held in an English-speaking country.
Ever hear the static shock you get from touching a door knob after walking on the carpet? Imagine that kind of spark magnified about a million times.
being very close to lighting definitely is an awesome experience- I've never been at high enough altitude during a storm to hear that kind of hissing, but I've been close enough to the site of a groundstroke to hear a loud sizzling/humming (like that of transformer or improperly shielded high voltage lines) sound during the actual strike but before the thunder. I'm still not sure what it was- whether it was a sound generated at the site of the strike (like thunder) or it was generated by the brush around me transducing strong EM emissions from the lightning into sound (a mechanism discovered to exist after people claimed they could hear the aurora on a quiet night). I also remember the color of the lightning strikes that were in that close (~less than 70 yards) being a brilliant purple. There's nothing to make you feel both awed and terrified and overall insignificant like a good thunderstorm. Another time I was flying out of New Orleans during the beginning of that storm about two months ago that dumped up to 11 inches of rain over only a few hours, and the wings if the plane were lit up with St. Elmo's fire, so much so that the people sitting in the seat behind me thought that it was actually burning. Heck, just two days ago I was awakened in the middle of the night by the tornado that went right through the middle of the city here in New Orleans- it passed several blocks to the west. The only other atmospheric phenomenon I've experienced that can contend with the experience of being way to close to an electrical storm is hearing a tornado nearby- the howling roar is death manifest, and as long as it's within earshot your entire world collapses down until it's just that awful sound.
LOL!
You're both wrong! This was in Australia. While it talks about the town Manila this Manila is a town in Australia. It's kind of like Berlin, New Hampshire or Paris, Texas.
The article was poorly written, however, unless you're an Australian you wouldn't really know, without a careful read.
is that her?
Still smiling, incredibly ... Ewa Wisnierska today after surviving her high altitude ordeal. Photo: Stefan Mast
Could this be the newest extreme sport? Storm gliding! (I bet it would sound better in German.)
Try it in the formula and see if you're still so sure.
Note to self. Don't paraglide in thunderstorms.
Thunderstorms + aviation - aircraft = Really bad news.
Ewa Wisnierska ... as she appears on the SkyFly website.
it sounds about the same...
Sturmgleiten
The Japanese have a word for suicidal pilots ... what was that again ;-)
Those Germans. They have a word for everything.
"And your little dog too!"
I think I'd have died from fright. But then again, I wouldn't have been up there in the first place. I think some people have had their fear instinct removed - like those who tailgate.
Wild ! It is a nice view from 37,000 feet. I enjoyed such view flying from NZ to LA, CA returning home !
Ah ain't skeered!
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