First accident I saw……………[Shashi Yadav]

“FLYING BANNED IN PANCHGANI” on that day, only permitted for me. A day before, the PSI of Panchgani Police Station had banned Paragliding due to more Air Traffic on the sites. The same night, I went to Shreemant Chhatrapati Udayanraje Bhosale to meet him. I informed him about the ban in Panchgani. The very next moment he called the PSI and the Collector of the area to allow me to fly solo.
The next morning I went to the Police Station to confirm my permission to fly. Only I was given permission to fly, as soon as I came out of the Police Station, a Tandom Pilot showed me the News Paper titled as “The Youngest Paraglider Pilot not given access to practice flying”.
Later, after having my breakfast, I took my glider and went on the site to fly. I opened my glider and took it on the take off point, on the same time, Shashi-a Tandom Pilot came to help me for my take off as I was not so good at it. I took off and had a top to bottom flight. As soon as I landed I saw one more green glider taking off and as usual I forgot my radio set, I could not confirm who was it. That glider was also approaching to land and I could clearly see that the Pilot was not wearing shoes, he was on his floaters; he was not having a proper harness; and was flying on a really old glider, which I know, was not safe. He was just about to land, but pulled the breaks when he was about 7-8 feet above the ground resulting in a stall. He came down in a great speed and started screaming as he banged on the ground. I knew it was painful. I tried to call someone to help him to get up, but no one was there around to help. Later, a villager with his hoe heard him scream. Luckily he had his mobile with only Rs.4.78 balance. I called my father and told him all the story. He immediately came there and we took him in the nearby hospital, carrying him in a sleeping bag.
After his check up we came to know that his 3rd disc of the back bone was crushed and needed to be operated immediately, but facilities were not available. So he was taken to Pune for treatment.
He had three operations, yet he became paralised for 2 years. That time I assumed the seriousness of this accident.
PLEASE NOTE : USE PROPER EQUIPMENTS AND ALWAYS CARRY A MEDIUM OF COMMUNICATION