A sudden gust of wind blew a paragliding enthusiast to his death off Cordoama beach, in Vila do Bispo, last week. The 55-year-old was blown off course, and instead of landing on the sand of the west coast beach, plunged 40 metres out to sea, disappearing instantly under the waves with the weight of his equipment.
Reporting on the tragedy, Correio da Manhã newspaper told how the German sportsman’s friends rushed to the rescue and managed to get him back to the surface within five minutes. But the time lag proved fatal.
“We got him out of the water and tried CPR, but he didn’t react,” said one, who asked not to be identified.
The body of the man, named simply as Helmut, was then worked on by rescue services who also tried reanimation techniques for “almost an hour” before giving up and pronouncing him dead.
According to his friends – a Portuguese and four Austrians, writes Correio da Manhã – Helmut was an experienced hang-glider pilot who only recently switched to paragliding. He is believed to have divided his time between Switzerland and Portugal.
Cordoama beach is a popular paragliding site as it has a high cliff above it from which pilots leap before eventually coming to rest on the sands below.
