This is the moment an experienced hang-glider pilot hits a tree before crashing onto a moving car during a landing attempt.
The accident happened at around 3pm in Sapiranga, in Rio Grande do Sul state in the metropolitan region of Porto Alegre, on Sunday, 23rd August.
Adilson Schroeder, 55, had launched from one of the ramps on Morro Ferrabraz and was approaching the landing area of the Gaucha Free Flight Association when turbulence reportedly pushed his hang glider off course.
Footage shows him descending towards the landing area before the glider veers towards the vegetation and strikes a tree.
The pilot then fell onto the road below, landing on a red car as the hang glider came down with him.
According to the Gaucha Free Flight Association, large trees around the landing area can create turbulence when there is wind, and this may have affected Adilson during the final part of his approach.
Alex Trombini, president of the association, said Adilson had been preparing to turn left when the turbulence suddenly pushed the glider in the opposite direction.
Trombini said: "He prepared for the manoeuvre to the left and the turbulence threw him to the opposite side, to the right.
"He had no more space to correct the turn and no height to make the turn to the right."
He added: "He ended up turning right, which was the least bad option he had, hit the vegetation with the wing and fell onto the asphalt."
Trombini said the turbulence had caused the wing to move sideways and increase its speed, leaving the pilot unable to control it.
Trombini also described Adilson as one of the region's most experienced pilots, saying he was possibly the active pilot who flew the most.
He added: "Whenever the conditions are right, he is flying, so he has a lot of experience in flying, take-offs and approaches."
Adilson had been practising hang gliding for around 15 years, although his passion for the sport began when he was a child after moving to Sapiranga.
His son Alan said his father had seen a hang glider when he was eight and had dreamed of flying ever since.
Alan said: "It was a dream since childhood. He came to Sapiranga when he was eight and saw a hang glider. It was a dream that he managed to fulfil at 40."
Alan was not with his father when the crash happened but was quickly alerted by fellow pilots who were at Morro Ferrabraz.
He said: "I wasn't with him at the time, I was at home. But because the people there are generally all friends who are at Morro Ferrabraz, flying and everything, someone went up and sent me a message, and I went there to accompany my father."
Alan also described how other pilots helped keep his father still immediately after the crash.
Alan said: "He was already wanting to get up, to move, at the accident itself. At the time of the accident, he was already trying to raise his head and such, and his colleagues, his friends, were there around him holding his hand, holding his head with a padded pillow underneath to keep his head straight."
Adilson was initially taken to Hospital Sapiranga before being transferred to Hospital Nossa Senhora das Gracas in Canoas.
Doctors found a small blood clot in his head and blood in his lung, while he also suffered fractures to both femurs, one of which was reportedly an open fracture.
He underwent surgery and was placed in an induced coma while receiving mechanical ventilation.
Adilson's passion for flying had also influenced his son, who is now taking up a different form of free flight.
Alan said: "He even wanted me to fly with him in the same sport, in the hang-gliding category, but I ended up choosing to fly a paraglider."
The large trees near the landing area had reportedly been a longstanding concern among local pilots, who had sought to have them removed because of the potential risks.
The association had previously raised concerns about conditions near the landing area, including in a document sent to the Public Prosecutor's Office in Sapiranga in June 2022.
Adilson remained in hospital as his family waited for his recovery.
Alan said: "After the accident, he will come out an even better pilot."
(Marija Stojkoska/Newsflash)
