MILPITAS, Calif. — A man died, and a woman was critically injured after a Memorial Day hang-gliding excursion turned deadly in Northern California.
Deputy Russell Davis of the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to The Mercury News that the aircraft used for the outing crashed on the hillsides of the Ed Levin County Park in Milpitas at about noon.
The man, who was riding on the hang glider, was pronounced dead at the scene, while the woman was airlifted to a San Jose medical facility, the newspaper reported.
According to KTVU, the victims went down a few hundred feet below transmission towers on top of the hillside at Monument Peak.
“The terrain is very rugged. It’s a single-lane road in order to get up to that location. It provided some challenges for our equipment and personnel to get up there and make patient contact,” Galahad Zamora, battalion chief for the Milpitas Fire Department, told the TV station.
The victims have not yet been identified publicly, but authorities have determined that the man was on the hang glider at the time of the fatal crash, The Mercury News reported, adding that the woman’s positioning during the crash remained unclear Tuesday.
According to the newspaper, Milpitas’ Ed Levin Park was is considered a premier training site in Northern California for both paragliding and hang gliding. Flyers, however, must be members of the United States Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association or the Wings of Rogallo Northern California Hang Glider Association to fly at the park.
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