A paraglider who died in the mountains in Wolseley over the weekend was experienced.
Nigel Frith (47) was in the midst of the activity with his friends on Saturday 25 February when they noticed he was missing. According to Frith’s Facebook page he was a certified flight instructor at a paragliding company in Cape Town.
“ER24 paramedics were airlifted to the patient after his friends had located the man after he had gone missing when paragliding in a group, after tracking his whereabouts on a GPS device,” said Russel Meiring a spokesperson for ER24. “On arrival at 19:00 medics and rescue personnel were lowered to where the patient was and, in their assessment, found he showed no signs of life. Unfortunately nothing could be done for him, and he was declared dead.”
According to the Wilderness Search and Rescue Services’ (WSAR) Facebook page the paraglider had flown more than 70 km at the time. WSAR had assisted ARCC (the Aeronautical Rescue Coordination Centre) with the operation. “WSAR were alerted to the incident late on Saturday afternoon, and teams were immediately dispatched to the area to assist in the multi-agency effort. Due to the strong winds a professional crew from Leading Edge Aviation, of a Black Hawk UH60 helicopter contracted to Kishugu Aviation, was dispatched from Stellenbosch to assists.
However, due to a strong wind it was decided to retrieve the body of the deceased only on Sunday morning.
“A WSAR team on board the Western Cape Department of Health EMS/Air Mercy Service (AMS) rescue helicopter was dispatched to Wolseley to assist police with the recovery early on Sunday morning,” the services’ post said. “Once on the scene the team was hoisted down on to the mountain. The body of the paraglider was packaged into a stretcher and hoisted up to the helicopter, before being flown to a nearby landing zone. The body was handed over to the police.”
ER24’s Meiring said details surrounding the incident were unknown, but local authorities were on scene to investigate the matter.
Sgt Wesley Twigg, spokesperson for provincial police, said a post-mortem would be conducted to determine cause of death. He requested anyone with information on the incident to contact Crime Stop on 08600 10111.
