Witold Gilarski: Pilot missing in Colombia

A “massive” search operation is underway in north west Colombia for a missing Polish pilot last heard from on Sunday afternoon local time.

Witold Gilarski, 69, was taking part in the SRS Ozone Edition in Santa Fe, a new venue for the competition series to the north west of Medellín.

He has not been seen since launching on Saturday 1 March for the event’s fifth task. His competition tracker last put him about 3km to the west of launch. Conditions were reported to have been “tricky” at the start of the task, which meant pilots had taken different routes. Many went east, but some headed west and back behind launch to climb out and gain height.

Organisers initially feared he might have hit power lines, which are known to be in the area his tracker went down, and a search and rescue mission was launched on Saturday. However, Witold phoned a friend on Sunday afternoon to report that he had landed ok and was hiking out. He said he’d send his location, but his phone then went dead. He has not been seen or heard from since. Witold was flying a Skywalk Mint (EN C) and Advance Lightness 4 harness.

“The Colombian authorities have been absolutely exceptional,” organisers said. “The police, army and fire brigade are involved. They’re doing a massive effort to find him. They’ve got people on microlights and drones with infrared cameras.”



The area is remote, but all the local villages have been contacted and no one has reported any signs of the pilot. Authorities are working on the theory that Witold landed in the area where his mobile phone and tracker signal was lost as his phone would have updated to a new position had he travelled far. 



“We were optimistic when we got the phone call,” organisers said. “We thought, ‘great, he’s been found’. He said he was by a river so we sent a group of people to run up this valley to find him but there was no sign. There are just so many things we don’t understand.”



This is not the first time a pilot has gone missing during a competition but concerns are now running high for Witold. His family has been informed and is in regular contact with organisers.

The incident has sparked some calls from pilots at the competition for satellite trackers to be made mandatory for competition pilots. SRS organisers say they are currently investing in a Flarm solution that will give 100% coverage in the air, something that has been in the pipeline for a while but has now been given new urgency.

The SRS is the Sports class Racing Series, a series of paragliding competitions designed for pilots flying EN C class wings. This is the first competition of four planned for 2025. The SRS Ozone Edition took place in Santa Fe from 23 Feb to 2 March; the other three will take place in Italy and Spain later this year.

A GoFundMe page has been set up by Brett Janaway to help raise funds towards on-going rescue efforts. “Any funds raised will be managed and distributed by the Sports-class Racing Series in the most effective way to assist with the search, rescue and recovery of Witold by the volunteers and additional methods we can employ,” he says.