03/03/16

INCIDENT

Marc Ramlal walks away unscathed from a 2500m freefall incident

I am a new person

On February 1st, Marc Ramlal was participating in a competition in Colombia when events went horribly wrong. His parachute reserve because caught up with his wing, and free-falling some 2500m, landed in a wooded area.

Marc has competed three times in the Open Roldanillo in Colombia but this time was different.  it was the last day of the competition and the air mass was turbulent.  Whilst thermaling, his wing suffered a closure and with twisted risers, entered into auto-rotation. Desperately trying to untwist he threw his reserve which became caught in the lines of his glider.

The free fall lasted two minutes* and seemed like an eternity for Marc

“At that time I realised that there was nothing more I could do, that I had no more options. So I resigned myself to the fact that I was about to die. I prayed to God to come to my aid, begged for forgiveness for all my wrong doings and asked Jesus for mercy to save me from physical harm. During that fall, I prayed for my children and for my wife…When I reached the ground, I immediately stood up but I felt nothing. I fell back down to my knees and paid homage to God for having spared me my life.”

The message read: “I am alive”

Marc suffered mild injuries to his jaw and right arm.  The rescue helicopters left immediately in search but could not find him because of the density of the trees. Not having much credit left on his phone, he sent the message “I am alive” to the paragliding association of Trinidad and Tobago.  After several exchanges he started to try to find his way out of the forest and so began walking towards the valley where he eventually met some of the search party.

When asked whether he would every fly again, he replied: “Of course!”.

See the article in the Trinidad Express

*The analysis of his flight instrument showed his free fall at 120km/hr