SKY-HIGH HORROR

Miracle Caught on Video as Paraglider Survives Getting Hit by Plane

A birthday paragliding trip over the Austrian Alps turned into a near-fatal freefall.

A paraglider somehow walked away after a sightseeing plane smashed through her canopy thousands of feet above the Austrian Alps. The collision sent her spiraling toward the ground, and the nightmare was caught on video. The 44-year-old woman, identified only as Sabrina, had been gliding over Salzburg when a Cessna 172 suddenly roared past “just inches” above her head and ripped through her parachute canopy. Footage she later posted online showed the aircraft slicing through the fabric before she plunged downward, trying to deploy her emergency chute. “The day when, as a paraglider, a Cessna 172 pulls you out of the sky,” Sabrina wrote on social media. “I still can’t really believe that I am sitting here typing this and that, apart from a few nasty bruises and overall contusions, nothing really happened.” Police said the pilot, a 28-year-old man from the Austrian Alps region of Tyrol, told investigators he “was unable to swerve in time.” Authorities said Sabrina managed to trigger her reserve parachute and land safely on a forest road after the collision. She was later airlifted by police helicopter. The pilot landed safely after the crash. Authorities have launched an investigation into the incident.