Seven paragliders had fallen in the Fewa Lake and the eighth in a nearby Armala village. They had fallen from the sky after they lost control during high winds at around 1:45 pm.
All the rescued paragliders were foreigners: five Russians -- Andrei Chesnokov, Viacheslab Kopchinskii, Alexey Makarov, Sergey Chepelev, and Yu Wang -- two Ukrainians -- OlekSii Kolesnyk and Wallen -- and Dinara Usmanova of Kazakhstan.
Ukrainian national Wallen had fallen in Armala while the remaining seven including five Russians, one Kazakh and another Ukraine national had fallen into the Fewa Lake. The only woman among the seven rescued from the lake was Kazakh.
All the paragliding pilots said they were alive due to the timely rescue.
“I was paragliding over the Fewa Lake. All of a sudden, strong wind started. I lost control of my glider and fell into the lake,” OlekSii, one of the rescued paragliders, said. “I was rescued immediately by a boat, so I survived.”
OkekSii said all his belongings including the passport, mobile phone and Global Positioning System (GPS) device were damaged by water.
Immediately after falling into the Fewa Lake, they had waved hands and yelled for help and were rescued by boats. Some of the paragliders had themselves swam out of the lake.
“Had I not learnt how to swim, I might have died today,” Alexy said. He was about to land but was caught in a whirlwind that that pushed him toward the middle of the lake, according to Alexy.
The eighth paraglider was stuck in a tree in Armala VDC. He was unhurt.
The accident occurred when the paragliders were competing in the Paragliding pre-World Cup and Open Nepal Paragliding Competition organized by Nepal Air Sports Association in support of Nepal Tourism Board. There were around 90 paragliders in the sky when the high winds started.
Citing windy conditions, the competition has been postponed for Wednesday, according to the organizer.
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12 paragliders plunge into Fewa Lake (Update)
