Hyderabad techie injures spine in Himachal paragliding mishap as honeymoon takes tragic turn

A 28-year-old  IT engineer working in Hyderabad was severely injured in a paragliding accident in Himachal’s Kullu valley as her honeymoon trip to the hill state turned into a tragedy.

Prisheena Gollamandala was brought to AIIMS, Delhi with severe spinal injuries and underwent a 3-hour surgery, according to a Times of India report.

Prisheena’s husband, Ajay, who is also an IT engineer, told the Times of India that she was reluctant to go for the paragliding but the instructor convinced her that there was nothing to fear about.

He blamed the instructor for the mishap as he did not take off from the fixed point and instead moved diagonally due to which Prisheena could not run properly and fell from a height of 15 feet. The parachute also did not open fully, he added.

In an earlier paragliding tragedy last December, a 30-year-old tourist from Maharashtra fell to his death from 300 feet in Kullu as the safety strap of the harness opened in mid-air. The instructor who landed safely was arrested for causing death by negligence.

In January last year, the Himachal Pradesh high court outlawed adventure sports, after a  12-year-old Bengaluru boy died in an accident near the Bir Billing paragliding site.

At the time, it was discovered that many operators’ registrations were invalid and that the majority of the equipment utilised by adventure sports operators did not meet the standards specified by the technical committee.

Only operators who could meet all the criteria were permitted to begin operations in April. Many local operators disregard the weather and wind speed while flying illegally from unapproved locations. Some also used old equipment as second-hand equipment is available at a cheaper price.