Second Accident Injures Participant In NM Gathering

A military doctor on leave from Colorado was killed Thursday, after his paraglider collided with another during the seventh annual Paraglider Fly-In in Albuquerque, NM.

Army Colonel Barton George was piloting his paraglider at an altitude of around 150 feet, when his craft somehow tangled with another paraglider.

"It was just a fluke thing where he didn't see the other pilot and they got tangled up," a witness told Denver Channel 7 News. George became entangled in his aircraft's fabric canopy, sending the plane to the ground.

Col. George, 46, was chief of the Evans Army Community Hospital pathology department in Fort Carson, CO. The second pilot was able to land his craft, and was treated at the scene and released.

Paragliders are essentially powered parachutes, with the pilot and engine suspended from a fabric canopy. The engine is located directly behind the pilot and spins a propeller protected by a round cage.

About 100 paragliders from around the world participated in the fly-in, which is usually held at the same time as the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, but is not related to that event.

In a second accident Saturday, another paraglider was injured while participating in the international competition when he tangled in electrical transmission lines. Around 400 electricity customers in the Albuquerque area went without power until he could be rescued.

FMI: www.usppa.org