A HANG-GLIDING competitor involved in last week’s terrifying mid-air collision near Manilla says it’s too early to contemplate whether he’d want to fly again.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
“I don’t want to think about it – I just want to get better,” said Andrew Morgan yesterday from his bed in Tamworth hospital.
Mr Morgan, 50, received a compound fracture to his left leg which will be operated on tomorrow in order to brace it.
Mr Morgan was 7000 feet in the air near Mt Borah, along with most of the other competitors in the NSW state hang-gliding titles, when Paul Barry, of central Queensland, slammed into him.
“I’ve seen it coming and I’ve blocked it like this,” Mr Morgan said, holding up his arms in an outward fashion.
The inside of his left upper arm shows an awful bruise where Mr Morgan said it took the brunt of the impact of the other hang-glider – the nose of which then caught his helmet and ripped it off.
Mr Morgan said it was only at the last second that he realised the collision was about to occur – but he doesn’t blame Mr Barry for the incident.
“It’s no one’s fault: it’s just bad luck,” said Mr Morgan, who works as a carpenter in Cairns.
“The reason it hit (was because) thermals are very small and narrow, so you have to bank the glider tightly, because you want to catch the maximum amount of that strong core.”
He said that banking at a 45-degree angle created huge centrifugal force and also caused low vision. “It diminishes your vision by multiples,” Mr Morgan said.
The former Tamworth man said once the impact occurred, the two hang-gliders became locked together, with both men deploying their reserve safety parachutes.
It was several minutes before they hit the ground, about 4km west of Mt Borah, and Mr Morgan had time to alert his ground crew on UHF radio.
“I looked across and said ‘Did you pull your reserve?’ He said yes. I called mayday on channel 14,” Mr Morgan said.
Amazingly, Mr Barry was able to walk away from the crash – but was later taken to Tamworth hospital by ambulance. Mr Morgan was airlifted to Tamworth hospital by the Westpac Rescue Helicopter.
“The chopper was in the air (coming to Manilla) by the time we hit the ground,” he said.
“It’s a good service. I’ve kept my loans with Westpac for the past 15 years because of the chopper service.
“I just wanted to thank those that spiralled down on hang-gliders to help us, thank the Westpac Rescue Helicopter and staff and the professional staff at Tamworth Base Hospital.”
He said he must have had “angels on his wings” that the damage to him wasn’t more serious.
