millbank Posted February 18, 2007 Posted February 18, 2007 Paraglider A sudden thunderstorm caught paragliders training for an upcoming event in Australia unawares Wednesday... hurtling two them to flight-level altitudes, and killing one. Amazingly, German paraglider Ewa Wisnerka was able to recover after being flung to an estimated 32,000 feet by updrafts stemming from the merging of two powerful thunderstorm cells. After blacking out from the high altitude and extreme cold, she regained consciousness in time to land safely -- 40 miles from her original launch site. "You can’t imagine the power. You feel like nothing, like a leaf from a tree going up," Wisnerka told Australian radio, according to the Daily Telegraph. A GPS unit and radio equipment Wisnerka carried recorded the details of her harrowing ordeal. Within 15 minutes, the violent winds carried her from about 2,500 feet to 32,000 feet. Her attempts to avoid the thunderstorm failed... leading her to conclude her chances of survival were "almost zero," before the effects of oxygen deprivation took hold. She was unconscious for more than 30 minutes... while her glider rode the winds, uncontrolled. "I was shaking all the time. The last thing I remember it was dark. I could hear lightning all around me," she said, adding she encountered orange-sized hailstones on her trip upward.
mead107 Posted February 18, 2007 Posted February 18, 2007 saw her on TV telling her story . she is hot !
Nanker Posted February 19, 2007 Posted February 19, 2007 saw her on TV telling her story . she is hot ! That must be what kept her alive in the freezing cold of 32,000 ft!
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