Licences of paragliding pilot, operator cancelled for tourist’s death due to negligence in Manali's Dobhi

Abhinav Vashisht

Kullu, February 18

The Tourism Department has cancelled the licences of the pilot and the operator for negligence after the departmental probe blamed the duo for the death of a 26-year-old woman tourist from Telangana. She died due to harness failure midair during tandem paragliding at Dobhi in Manali subdivision on February 11.

Paragliding suspended at Dobhi site

• The Kullu District Tourism Development Officer said paragliding was suspended at Dobhi site on the day of the accident and the paragliding association was given the responsibility of regulating the Dobhi paragliding site
• However, deficiencies were found there during probe, after which paragliding has been banned at the site till further orders. The DTDO said marshals would be deployed soon and a review would be undertaken by the technical committee before a decision is made on resumption

Earlier, the department had suspended the licences of pilot Rahul Singh of Lalot village of Kangra and operator Ghanshyam Negi of Kullu. After the probe report flagged negligence, licences of both have been cancelled and they have been asked to surrender their licences.

Kullu District Tourism Development Officer (DTDO) Sunayna Sharma said during the preliminary investigation it was found that the accident occurred due to human error. She added that after investigation, it was revealed that the pilot had not fastened the safety harness properly. She added that the woman tourist fell from the paraglider just two minutes after takeoff and crashed on the roof of a house and died on the spot.

The DTDO said the paragliding had been suspended at Dobhi site on the same day of the accident. She said the paragliding association was given the responsibility of regulating the Dobhi paragliding site. However, deficiencies were found there during investigations, after which paragliding has been banned at the site till further orders. She said marshals would be deployed soon and review would be done by the technical committee before a decision is taken on paragliding.

Meanwhile, Kullu SDM Vikas Shukla is also carrying out a magisterial inquiry into the matter. The police are also investigating the matter after registering a case under Sections 304A and 336 of the IPC. However, no arrests have been made so far.

The Tourism department has also imposed fines on paraglider pilots and operators in Gadsa flying site and has banned paragliding at this site till further orders as many flaws have come to light during inspection. The DTDO said nine paragliders were inspected and eight of them had flaws. She added that some were flying gliders without helmets while some were flying with old gliders without testing. She further added that seven persons were fined Rs 10,000 each and one was fined Rs 2,000.

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