Pilot error in fatal NSW paraglider crash
A paraglider with a passion for adventure sports has died after stalling while trying to land on a popular mountain top in NSW.
The 25-year-old German man learnt to glide in April in Manilla, northwest of Tamworth.
Chief flying instructor Godfrey Wenness said the man was performing a top land at Mt Borah on Sunday when he fell 10 metres.
"He performed a top land approach and he applied the brakes deeply and stalled," he told AAP on Monday.
"It was at the end of the day so conditions were very tame. The conditions were extremely novice style conditions.
"There was no equipment failure at all."
The pilot died on arrival at hospital a short time later.
Mr Wenness, who has been involved in the sport for 26 years, believes the accident was due to pilot error.
There were about 30-40 people at the Mt Borah site when the accident occurred.
The man's family in Germany have been notified.
Mr Wenness said the paraglider was in Australia on a working visa and had been recently skiing in Queenstown, sailing in north Queensland and planned to go sky diving in the Hunter Valley.
The Manilla area is popular for paragliding and hosted the world championships in 2007.
It is the same spot where German paraglider Ewa Wisnierska was sucked into a violent storm cell in 2007.
She spent 40 minutes unconscious while being carried to a height of about 9946 metres during a training flight ahead of a championship event in Manilla.
She lost consciousness due to hypoxia, but regained consciousness after and landed after a three-and-a-half hour flight.
A Chinese paraglider was sucked into the same storm cell and died.
