In the news

July 28, 2024

On Sunday 28th July the Patterdale Mountain Rescue Team received their 3rd rescue of the weekend following reports from Cumbria Police of a possible paraglider crash landing somewhere after taking off from the summit of Place Fell near Patterdale.

The paraglider had been observed as possibly losing control a couple of times then plummeting to the ground.  The area where he had come down was quite extensive on the side of Place Fell so the Team asked for assistance from a Coastguard Search and Rescue helicopter to enable a detailed search from the air.

After searching by Team members on foot and the Helicopter by air it proved a negative result.  After speaking to different witnesses who came forward it was established that the paraglider in question could have been in the valley bottom when they thought he had crashed and as this area had been searched the incident was stood down.  Whilst Team Members were still at the Base the paraglider, who had by now heard what was going on, called in to speak to us. He was fine and explained that he does Speed Flying which is a lot faster than normal paragliding  and can look, to bystanders, to be out of control at times. He had flown 4 times from the summit that day and the last flight was when the witnesses thought he had crashed.  

The incident was attended by 15 Team members  for around two hours.