A paraglider slammed into a cliffside in California on Wednesday, leaving him stranded about 500 feet below the bluff’s edge and prompting a dramatic helicopter rescue.
The solo pilot went down just north of Mussel Rock in Daly City shortly after 4 p.m., where crews found him stuck on “extremely rough terrain,” Daly City Fire Fighters Local 400 said.
Responders from the CHP Golden Gate Division’s air operations unit, Daly City firefighters and an American Medical Response ambulance were sent to the scene.
Reaching the injured man from the ground was not possible because he was trapped high above the beach, forcing crews to rely on an aircraft to extract him safely.
A CHP helicopter soon arrived carrying a Daly City Fire Department rescue technician, who was lowered down the steep cliff face to get to the stranded paraglider.
Rescue video shows the technician descending toward the man as the operation unfolded along the rugged coastline.
Within moments, the technician and the injured paraglider were lifted hundreds of feet back up to the hovering helicopter.
The paraglider was later taken by ambulance to a local trauma center with moderate injuries, according to the North County Fire Authority.
His condition was not known.
The entire response took about 90 minutes, from the initial emergency call to the rescue, hospital transport, and clearing of the scene.
And this was not the Bay Area’s only recent cliffside rescue.
Earlier this week, San Francisco firefighters saved a dog near Dead Man’s Point by Lands End after its owner reported that it had gone over the edge.
