A 63-year-old man killed himself Saturday afternoon in a hang-gliding accident on a landing area in Haute-Savoie, according to concordant sources.
The accident occurred shortly before 1:30 p.m., while the victim was trying to land on a landing area in the town of Passy, located at the foot of the Mont Blanc massif.
According to the first elements of the investigation, entrusted to the High Mountain Gendarmerie Platoon (PGHM) of Chamonix, a hang glider wing would have hung a tree while it was trying to land on this runway deemed "very short".
The sixty-something then "plunged and dropped twenty meters," said mountain rescue workers, who were alerted by witnesses to the accident. He could not be resuscitated despite the intervention of the firefighters.
Hiker found dead
The man had taken off a little earlier, in the company of three friends, from a take-off area intended for free flight located on one of the flanks of the Plaine Joux station.
This Saturday, the Chamonix PGHM also found in the Mont-Blanc massif the body of a 33-year-old hiker who had been missing for a week.
The victim, who had been actively sought by the emergency services since Monday, was found at 2,600 meters above sea level under the Aiguille de Tête plate, wedged between rocks and a snowfield.
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According to the Chamonix PGHM, he would have died while trying to climb a wall located on his route, although "poorly equipped" to practice mountaineering.
