‘It was just so strong – there was nothing I could do’

In October Canadian paraglider pilot Dr Ben Lewis was swept to 7,374m in a storm cloud in Bir in India. Remarkably, unlike so many others, he lived to tell the tale.

In his report posted alongside his tracklog on XContest three days after the even he told how he was at the end of a five-hour flight when he flew too close to a cumulonimbus – storm cloud – and got swept up. After fighting with his glider for an eternity, drenched, freezing, battered by hail and forced back into his harness under the pressure of the g-forces as he spiralled uncontrollably upwards, at one point hitting a screaming 23m/s.

After resigning himself to his death he blacked out at around 7,000m AMSL. However, he did not die but woke “surprised” to find himself back on the ground, hanging in a tree and still attached to his paraglider, an Ozone Alpina 4 (EN C). His tracklog shows he came down to earth in the strong downdrafts associated with the storm, with a maximum sink rate of 19m/s (68km/h).

Suffering from injuries which included frost-bitten hands, retinal bleeding, a frozen cornea, ruptured eardrum, a badly bitten tongue and rib fractures he then endured a long self-rescue before being found by a local mountain family who took him into their home. He was later retrieved by his flying friends who then hiked out with him to a waiting taxi that took him back to Bir. Back home in Canada he was also diagnosed with C4 and C5 fractures, vertebrae in...