Storm whips paraglider to heights of 32,000 feet

Ewa WisnierskaA snippet from The Sydney Morning Herald:
A German paraglider survived lightning, pounding hail, minus 40-degree temperatures and oxygen deprivation after a storm system sucked her to an altitude higher than Mount Everest.

Ewa Wisnierska, 35, passed out due to a lack of oxygen and flew unconscious for up to an hour covered in ice after reaching an altitude of 9,947 metres - near the cruising height of a jumbo jet.

The champion sportswoman's survival was like "winning Lotto 10 times in a row", Australia's most experienced paraglider says.

Wisnierska says experience told her she had no chance of survival, but a doctor told her that blacking out had saved her.

"It was because that I got unsconscious because then the heart slows down all the functions - it saved my life," she told ABC radio.

Read the full article of her ordeal after the jump.

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald
Tags: | | | |

Comments