If you’ve ever been on the fence about trying an extreme sport like hang gliding, this video will have you keeping your feet firmly planted on terra firma. On his first day of a holiday in Switzerland, YouTuber Gursk3 decided to try hang gliding, but the excursion didn’t go exactly as planned.
He was supposed to be safely tethered to the hang glider and just along for a leisurely ride while a skilled pilot steered the craft down a steep mountain. But shortly after takeoff, the pair realized that his harness hadn’t been connected to the glider at all, resulting in Gursk3 having to spend two minutes and 14 seconds desperately clinging to the craft while the pilot attempted to find a safe place to quickly land.
Complicating things further was the pilot trying to hold onto his passenger with one hand, while attempting to maneuver the hang glider with the other, resulting in an erratic descent that lasted a lot longer than both of them probably would have liked.
Farther down the mountain, the pilot does manage to eventually bring the hang glider in for a landing, but after his passenger was low enough to the ground to safely let go and fall. He lived to tell the tale (and share the heart-racing footage on YouTube) but ended up with a fragmented distal radius fracture on his wrist, which required surgery and a titanium plate to fix, and a torn left bicep muscle. Despite a terrifying vacation memory he’ll never forget, the passenger claims: “I will go hang gliding again as I did not get to enjoy my first flight.” Uh, good luck!
[YouTube via The Awesomer]