Woman Suffers Fatal Injuries in Crestline Paraglider Crash

Published by Raymond Ray

At 5:21 p.m. on Friday, San Bernardino County Fire responded to reports of a paraglider down in Crestline. Witnesses reported the paraglider crashed approximately 600 – 700 feet down on the south-facing slopes of the San Bernardino Mountains.

Bystanders reported that just before sunset the paraglider was seen out of control in a spin before disappearing into a rocky ravine area.

Emergency crews arrived on the scene and began attempting to locate the woman. San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department Aviation sent a helicopter to search the area while firefighters cut through the thick vegetation to gain access to the crash site.

An engineer from Station 25 in Crestline reported that one, possibly two chainsaws were burned out cutting through the thick vegetation as they tried to gain access to the scene. It was described as a wall of think branches that they had to navigate in the darkness amongst sheer cliffs and rocky outcroppings. When emergency crews found the woman she had succumbed to traumatic fatal injuries that she had suffered in the crash.

At the same time San Bernardino County Coroner’s Office had been contacted to determine whether she would be brought up at night or if they would wait till the morning. The decision was made for the Rim Search and Rescue units to recover the body early Saturday morning. Officials at the scene stated that a search and rescue team would stay with the body all night until the recovery could be started after sunrise.

While both the terms “hang glider”and “paraglider” have been used in this report and the video, officials have been using both terms synonymously during this incident. Identifying information for the woman had not been released as of press time. The accident is currently under investigation.


3 Comments

  1. Well, if reports from bystanders started coming in ‘before sunset’ why did it take until 5:21 before responders arrived at the scene? This means a 30+ minute response time.

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