Falling from the sky

Twice now during my life I have witnessed a paraglider falling from the sky! The first time was when Steve and I were driving back from the Township of Mt Beauty, when as I was gazing out at the beautiful blue sky, a glider off in the distance above the airport suddenly spiralled out of control towards the earth!

I rang the police and reported my sighting, immediately.

The poor man lost his life that day, as the sun shone brilliantly on the rest of us, but for the family and friends of this man the news they were about to receive would shatter their shining world forever.

I was saddened to hear later that the man died instantly, with no chance of surviving.

Yesterday at exactly 10.24 the phone rang and I answered the call, It was our good friend Tim Cope the adventurer ringing me to tell him he was back renting next door in his little cottage and settling back in to Tawonga life after returning from Mongolia with his beautiful partner Haulo.

As I settled in for a chat on the verandah over looking my beautiful valley, I thought I witnessed this terrible sight again across the valley this time on the edge of the National Park!

I gasped as I saw an orange parachute suddenly crash and disappear out of sight! I told Tim what I thought I saw and hung up! I grabbed the binoculars that we have handy, and saw the Ryder's cattle, who's property it was, all cantering away from the area!! Alarm bells rang as I know there was a motorised Hang gliding club in the Valley, as on Friday they were flying over our house annoying the peace of Spring Spur Life with their lawn mowers in the sky flying very low over us.

I then rang 000, explaining what I had just witnessed calmly explaining the National Park Track the emergency services would need to access to find him, on or near where we take our riders everyday called Moncrieff's fire trail at the eastern end of Rock Pool rd in Mt Beauty.!

It is frustrating when explaining to emergency services that I was witness to an incident some three kilometres away as the crow fly's, on the other side of the Valley, and the ambulance was not needed here at Spring Spur but in the National Park!

My darling son Lin, recognised my anguish and drove down to the National Park gate with his first aid kit and hiked in, running most of the way, calling me to see if he needed to go further. Thank god for iPhones and excellent signal now days, as I was able to pinpoint the approximate location of both Lin and where he needed to get to, from my awesome lookout point on the verandah of my home.

In the meantime I had rung my neighbour Glen McIlroy, paramedic and in search and rescue, direct to alert him of what I had witnessed and gave him Lin direct number!

I then rang Lin back and just at that moment he had found him! "He's conscious mum I have found him"

Nigel was in a bad way, but the ambo's were on their way. Lin had found Nigel at exactly 11am. and the The first ambulance officers, Glen and his partner  arrived at 11.20am. Although Nigel was in terrible pain, there was no external bleeding so Lin could only make him as comfortable as possible while they waited for the ammo's 20 minutes later.

Lin said it seemed like a very long time to wait, but it was difficult to access the site. Lin shared with us last night when we had a family de- briefing, that Nigel's sense of humour remained in tact and he had told Lin he had hit the power lines and fell from about 20+ metres, (actually 60-80 metres) landing strapped to his machine on his back!  Later when his friends arrived at the scene Nigel overheard someone say "It's his birthday today and he is 60 years old" On hearing this Nigel whispered to Lin who was still supporting his head, "I'm 59 tell 'em I'm 59!"

Lin was so amazingly brave, as was Nigel,  comforting and supporting Nigel while they waited for help to arrive, it was a long wait. He was very pale and couldn't move. He was airlifted to Melbourne at 1.45pm,  after great life saving stabilising efforts from out emergency services team, Nigel's blood pressure was dangerously low at the scene, he remains in a critical but stable condition, fighting for his life!

We are hoping he can pull through, and celebrate his 59th birthday some other day, in some other way, with his loved ones, mates from the club and maybe with his feet firmly on the ground!

Our thoughts are with Nigel and his family and friends.

Kath Baird

View from the verandah