JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. — Along the west side of town, drivers can often see paragliders hovering above Golden. What is unusual is what happened Wednesday as recounted and videotaped by a nearby hiker.
"Once I realized that he wasn't screaming, screaming for joy; it was screaming for his life," Kent Kovack, a hiker, said. "I quit videotaping and immediately called 911."
Kovack shot video of a 45-year-old man caught in a spin and falling towards the ground near Green Mountain in Lakewood. West Metro Fire Rescue responded and found the man conscious and talking, according to Public Information Officer Ronda Scholting.
"What he told our crews is that he took off from the 'M' right off of basically downtown Golden," Scholting said.
From the Colorado School of Mines letter 'M' on the side of Mount Zion next to Lookout Mountain in Golden, the paraglider traveled about five miles towards Green Mountain near where Kovack was hiking with his 10-year-old daughter.
"I was terrified because I've parachuted before and I've done those kinds of whirls and it's a lot of G-forces," Kovack said.
Scholting said the pilot cited bad flying conditions.
"The winds were pretty erratic yesterday," Scholting said. "He kept being blown away from the landing spot and then his chute suddenly deflated and then he fell, he said, about 200 feet to the ground."
West Metro Fire Rescue crews found him about 30 yards away from cars on C-470. This area is popular for hang gliding and paragliding.
"Could be a potentially dangerous area just because the winds could be very erratic coming off the hogback along 470 and, you know, up into the Golden areas," Scholting said. "So, you have to probably be a pretty experienced paraglider in order to do this safely."
The Rocky Mountain Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association put out a video and flying guidelines for people flying near Lookout Mountain to alert pilots to the changing conditions.
"I can tell you that the pilot will make a full recovery and is doing just fine," Will Stites, president of the RMHPA, said in an email to 9NEWS. "Paragliding is a very safe endeavor by and large. Unfortunately, events like this do happen from time to time but, with proper training, it is pretty rare."
West Metro Fire Rescue and the Golden Fire Department would agree. Other than a paragliding fatality in 2017, both agencies said paragliding crashes hardly ever happen. West Metro said it responded to four crashes in the last five years including Wednesday's. Golden said it has had one crash in the last seven years.
Kovack recognizes this is a rare crash with a lucky outcome for the pilot who has not been identified by authorities.
"It's just a miracle that he survived," Kovack said.
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