Nisim Thapa/File photo of Nepalese Army who died in a paragliding accident during the National Games on Sunday
31 October, Kathmandu. The 26th year of commercial paragliding is going on in Nepal. Commercial flight started in Nepal in 1996 with Sunrise Paragliding. Since then, 17 people have lost their lives in accidents, according to the Nepal Civil Aviation Authority data. According to Devraj Subedi, information officer of the Pokhara office of the authority, there have been a total of 17 major accidents, including the accident on Sunday. In which 17 people have died.
According to the Pokhara office of the authority, paragliding flights that started in 1996 were 100 per cent safe till 2010. However, since then it has been seen in the data that solo flights have crashed. The first paragliding accident happened in Pokhara in 2010. In which 70-year-old Malaysian citizen Peter died. In the same year, 26-year-old Christoph Andreas of Germany died during another solo flight in Pokhara. In 2010, 38-year-old kiddie Askin Alexander from Russia died in an accident at a place called Dhikidando.
There were no accidents in the next two years. In 2013, a 43-year-old South Korean national, Yong Min Sum, crashed while on a solo flight in Pokhara. In 2014, Czech Republic boyfriend Huek died in an accident while on a solo flight to a place called Angerivir.
2015 and 2017 were the most unsafe years after 2010. Three people lost their lives in three accidents that year. Aon Dragopp, 35, of Romania, Sunil Bhattarai of Nepal and Hiuen Yan Gak, 46, of South Korea, died during the solo flight.
Nepal’s Shailesh Pahari died in 2016 during a solo flight in Syangja. In 2017, 27-year-old Prabhat Subedi died in Fewatal and in 2017 68-year-old British national Mikaal Peter Plajchopad died in Sarangkot. In the same year, 22-year-old passenger Manish Gurung died in Pokhara and 54-year-old solo aircraft carrier Shivraj Mani Appa from India died in Favetal.
In 2019, 42-year-old Ade Cesare of Romania died in Favetal. In the same year Dmitry Stepanishin of Russia died in Sarangkot. In 2020, pilot Raju Nopali Gayre died in a paragliding accident of a passenger flight. Passengers were injured.
Nisim Thapa of the Nepalese Army died in an accident during the last National Games on Sunday. Along with this, the government has currently banned paragliding flights across the country.