A paraglider escaped with her life after a small aircraft’s propeller shredded her wing in a mid-air collision above the Austrian Alps on Saturday, May 23. The incident unfolded in the skies above Zell am See ski resort, which is famous for prime access to strong Alpine thermals. The paraglider, identified only as Sabrina, filmed the whole incident and shared the incredible survival story on her Instagram.
The collision occurred at approximately 1:15 p.m. on May 23 near the Pinzgauer Hütte above Piesendorf, a small village in Austria’s Salzburg region roughly eight kilometers from Zell am See. According to Salzburg police, a 44-year-old paraglider pilot from Upper Austria was flying near the mountain hut when a Cessna F182Q Skylane, operated by Alpenflug LLC and registered as OE-KAF, approached on what the Aviation Safety Network confirmed was a local sightseeing loop — having departed Zell am See Airport and returning to the same airport when the collision occurred, just 1.2 nautical miles west-northwest of the published traffic pattern. The plane was piloted by a 28-year-old man from Tyrol.
The area is popular with paragliders, who can access the Schmittenhöhe area by gondola, from where many take off points can be accessed. Unfortunately, the area also sits beneath the flight approaches to Zell am See Airport. The local Ikarus Pinzgau paragliding club explicitly warns pilots on its website that “we share the airspace with gliders, helicopters and powered aircraft” and that “it is essential that all paraglider pilots adhere to the rules and agreements” — including strict time windows for launching and a prohibition on entering certain restricted zones below 1,500 meters (4,921 feet) above sea level.
The Cessna’s pilot told police he was unable to recognize or avoid the paraglider in time. The aircraft’s left wing made contact with the flex-wing paraglider, ripping away the canopy and leaving the fabric and equipment wrapped around the wing — where it remained when the plane eventually landed.
With her glider destroyed, the paraglider pilot — identified on social media as Sabrina — deployed her reserve emergency parachute and made a controlled landing on a forestry road below. She was transported to Zell am See Airport by police helicopter. Both pilots escaped without serious injury, though Sabrina reported bruises and contusions across her body.
The Cessna landed safely at Zell am See Airport with the paraglider equipment still tangled around its left wing. The aircraft sustained only minor damage.
Sabrina later posted video of the incident and its aftermath on Instagram, opening with a line that said everything: “Happy 2nd Birthday to me.”
“The day a Cessna 172 takes you out of the sky as a paraglider,” she wrote in German — misidentifying the aircraft model in what was an understandable moment of shock. “I still can’t believe I’m sitting here typing this and that apart from a few nasty bruises and contusions, nothing really happened.”
Mid-air collisions between powered aircraft and paragliders are extremely rare, but they represent one of the most serious risks in alpine flying precisely because the airspace is largely uncontrolled, aircraft move at very different speeds, and mountain terrain makes visual acquisition difficult until it is too late. That Sabrina walked away is a function of training, equipment, and a significant measure of fortune. Deployment of a reserve parachute at paragliding altitudes leaves very little margin for error — and the forestry road that served as her landing zone was not a given. Her second birthday, as she called it, was well earned.