A paraglider has caught a death-defying collision on camera after a small plane clipped her canopy, sending her spiralling thousands of feet above the Austrian Alps.
A 44-year-old woman was paragliding over the Piesendorf area of Salzburg on Saturday when a pilot flying a scenic flight struck her, Salzburg State Police say.
The 28-year-old pilot told authorities he was unable to avoid the collision.
"The propeller of the motor plane severely damaged the paraglider, prompting the experienced paraglider to deploy her reserve parachute," police said.
"The woman from Upper Austria made a safe emergency landing on a forest road. She was then airlifted by police helicopter to Zell am See Airport. Both parties escaped injury."
The video showed her gliding alongside an Alpine ridge line when a small white aircraft enters the frame and tears through her canopy just metres above her head.
She begins to spiral and lose altitude before calmly reaching for her emergency parachute.
The reserve chute deploys and slows her descent, the shredded remains of her glider trailing behind her in two pieces, still attached to her harness.
She descended rapidly, narrowly avoiding a shrub before touching down on a grassy patch.
"I actually still can't believe that I'm sitting here typing this," she wrote in an Instagram caption, adding she had escaped with little more than bruises.
The morning's headlines in 90 seconds, including the terrifying moment a paraglider’s hit by a plane in mid air, and Peter Burling scores a win over Team New Zealand. (Source: 1News)
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