Incident
- ID:
- SFFL 8
- Incident category:
- Speed Flying Fatality List
- Date:
- 14. 03. 2009
- Time:
- —
- Cause of death:
- —
- Launch site:
- Switzerland › Vaud › Les Diablerets (Ormont-Dessus)
Equipment
- Wing:
- Paratech › P180
- Wing size:
- 9.0 m²
- Safety devices:
- Unknown
Personal
- Name:
- Manuel Muerner
- Age:
- 36
- Weight:
- —
- Gender:
- Male
- Nationality:
- Swiss
- Experience level:
- —
- Experience description:
- —
- Time on wing:
- —
Circumstances
- Conditions:
- Leeside Flying
- Factors:
- Turbulence
Description
Manuel Muerner 36, crashed after flying too close to rocks on the Diablerets glacier. He died at the accident site. Manuel was known as being a very careful and responsible pilot and kite surfer. He was speed riding with a friend at the ski resort Les Diablerets on a east facing slope up on 3000m. There was west wind blowing at around 30 Km/h. So they were clearly flying in a nasty leeside wind. No one witnessed the accident, except for analysis from his helmet camera.
It is believed that Manuel got dropped from the moving air in the leeside while he was doing a 90° hook turn. He touched the snow to hard, his glider collapsed, and he fell. The Impact didn`t seem hard in the snow. Video stopped here.
He must now have been sliding down the steep snow face for a few hundred meters, over big cliffs, which is what probably killed him.