A champion hang glider was killed in a freak accident after colliding with a paraglider mid-air over Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Thursday.
The two-time Brazilian hang-gliding champion Philip Eric Haegler, 59, was knocked off course by the collision, smashed into a building, and was knocked unconscious before falling 11 stories to his death, according to reports from local outlets.
Emergency crews rushed to the scene but were unable to save the champion hang glider.
The police told the local outlet they believed windy conditions were the cause of Haegler’s accident, not a crash with another paraglider.
But Bruno Menescal, president of São Conrado Free Flight Club said the collision precipitated the fatal fall.
“We had a collision … which led to this incident,” Menescal said in Portuguese to G1 Globo.
Haegler was a close friend of Pedro Paulo Guise Carneiro Lopes, another famous Brazilian hang-glider, who tragically died in Japan during a tournament.
