What looked to be a call for a dramatic rescue attempt last Friday afternoon in Sechelt Inlet turned out to be a false alarm.
Just after 3 p.m. on July 25, Sunshine Coast RCMP, paramedics and Sechelt firefighters were dispatched to a possible paraglider in distress.
"Witnesses saw a parachute hit the water and disappear from sight, and a second paraglider was still in the air," said Cpl. Steven Chubey.
"Upon arrival, RCMP met with the paragliders and learned that none were in distress and that what witnesses saw was an unmanned drogue chute that had been dropped in the water."
Miguel Roberts of Zone Paragliding, a new business set to start up on the Coast, said he and test pilot John Kelson were putting the final touches on their up and coming boat-towed tandem paragliding business when the rewind winch on the boat failed to quickly rewind 1,000 metres of spectra line out of the sky with the bright orange drogue parachute on the end.
"The parachute hit the water while the tow boat was half a mile away, which to the observer would appear to be a problem, but was not," said Roberts.
"Our tows can reach 1,500 metres in about five minutes and can be released from at any time. We are very grateful to the rescue services on the Coast and do apologize for the oversight."
.png;w=120;h=80;mode=crop)
