Topic: storm death near Manilla NSW - 14th Feb 2007

[nmoir]

 dont fly into storms in a paraglider ,

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=227678

another woman was also taken up 30,000 feat and came down with frostbite , and ice covering her paraglider

if anyone has images of the storm in particlar or radar images of said storm the smh are interested and will pay for photos

[Michael Bath]

The radar loop showing the storms is here:

http://australiasevereweather.com/storm_news/2007/radar/20070214/moree256.htm

I gather from the article that he must have taken off from SE of Barraba (where storms developed by about 1pm and tracked NNW.

Hourly satpics of the storms between 2 to 5pm EDT



Perhaps the gliding clubs will have photos of the actual storm clouds.

MB

[nmoir]

thanks michael ,

amazing story of it is on smh now

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/dead-luck-ewas-flight-of-fury/2007/02/16/1171405421626.html


the radar doesnt show much

some of her friends are claiming the bruises on her would make the hail the size of cricket balls and bigger , i told our online that the storm didnt seem to big on radar but who knows

[Michael Bath]

I don't recall any STW that afternoon, though it does not surprise me if she was battered by heaps of hail. I seriously doubt the larger sizes but it could have seemed like that if you were up there LOL

http://soundings.bsch.au.com/skew-t.html?source=wyoming&lat=-29.4819&lon=149.8383&gribdate=&month=02&day=14&year=2007&hour=00

Sounding suggests the storms would have peaked around 12000m in height and been about -45 near 10000m

[David C]

yes it's more the altitude rather than the hail that makes her survival seem miraculous. Amazing story!

[Jeff Brislane]

If only she had a video camera on her helmet as the footage would have been amazing!

As for the hail brusies they are forgetting that she was travelling at 70km/h upwards and probably against hail that was falling at an even higher velocity so you can imagine the pain if you were awake, even from golf ball hail and it's no surprise she has large bruises.

Jeff.

[Harley Pearman]

Hello

I read the storey and was quite amazed.

Based on a report from the Australian (Saturday 17 Feb), it seems that one paraglider tried to fly between two storm cells that merged into one cell. Although it is stated that the storm became a supercell.

The paraglider was caught in an updraft for 40 minutes and sent to an altitude of almost 32,000 feet. The paraglider survived this plus the hail and being coated in ice.

Another paraglider died. Incredible survival storey.

I am aware of one other storey occurring in similar circumstances from the USA in the 1960s near Rutland (Illinois) where a pilot was trying to fly over a thunderstorm cell at 50,000 feet in a jet fighter. The aircraft stalled in mid air while flying over the thunderstorm. The pilot had to bail out at 50,000 feet and bailed out into the thunderstorm. The pilot was coated in ice, was hammered by hail but survived the descent. The pilot spoke about swimming inside the thunderstorm cloud and nearly drowning and near lighting flashes. I have the storey of this at home. Truly remarkable.

Normally in 99.99% of cases one does not survive so this is an incredible survival storey.

Harley

 

[Mike]

Yes incredible survival, apparently the other flyer was actually struck by lightning as i hear today causing her death.

Mike

[Rhett Blanch]

Link to photos taken by a paraglider pilot that afternoon.  Seriously crazy looking stuff:
http://s7.photobucket.com/albums/y259/irrs/Manilla_14_02_07/

[Brad Hannon]

Good link Rhett,
I was amazed at the fact that the world's best (and presumably most experienced) at that sport would go up in unstable conditions with storms forcast.  Clearly from those photos they were aware of the storms.  Then again they would probably shake their heads at stormchasers and wonder why? 

[David C]

Link to photos taken by a paraglider pilot that afternoon.  Seriously crazy looking stuff:
http://s7.photobucket.com/albums/y259/irrs/Manilla_14_02_07/

Hi Rhett! Wow, incredible perspective.....looks nasty. I can't imagine jumping out of a plane with that base and precip curtain (and presumably lightning) looming. I remember Michael T reported that he actually saw some skydivers emerg out of an anvil on a storm chase which I found hilarious....people take risks, yep including storm chasers Brad !
 

[Rhett Blanch]

Hi,
Was at the top of Mount Borah (880 ASL) on Sunday and can sort of see how it could go bad very fast.  Arrived at about 11am.  Hot (31 and quite dry), mainly blue sky to the west with occasional cumulus and some high cirrus.  At about 12.15 sky started to fill in quite rapidly with cumulus.  By 12.30 small towers were starting building to the North and West quite rapidly.  They called it off at about that time. About 15 minutes later and there was quite intense rainfall to the North-East and by late afternoon Manilla had about 34mm in some areas so I'm told, of course its his and miss.

Looking at the Moree sounding (thought it would be interesting) it doesn't look like all that entirely but I guess Manilla is a bit to the east and that could have made all the difference.
http://soundings.bsch.au.com/skew-t.html?source=wyoming&lat=-29.4819&lon=149.8383&gribdate=&month=02&day=25&year=2007&hour=00