Kamloops Search and Rescue (SAR) says it received a call around 4:30 p.m. about a paraglider that had crashed on Mount Paul on the northeast edge of the city. According to Kamloops RCMP, Simon Hergott, who later said in an emailed statement that he was at the location after being alerted to the situation by a friend, became impatient after joining SAR team members as they climbed the mountain. RCMP said Hergott became verbally abusive when the group did not take the route he suggested. Hergott — also a paraglider aficionado — said he rushed to Mount Pavlos and got there before the SAR team. He said he ran up the mountain and, from the top, found the crash victim’s location. Hergott said he was able to contact the victim, whom he identified in the email as “a young Swiss man named Quintin.” Hergott said he headed back up the mountain in hopes that help was on the way. Halfway there, he said he met the SAR team. He said he told search and rescue members he spotted the fallen paraglider and tried to direct them to the “safest possible route … that wouldn’t put him in danger with a rockfall.” In his email, Hergott said the SAR team “was moving slowly and I impressed upon them the serious need to move [as] as quickly as possible’ because the paraglider ‘wouldn’t stay warm for long and his pain was increasing’. Hergot eventually returned to the base of the mountain, where RCMP took him into custody. He was later released and, according to Staff Sgt. Bill Wallace had not been charged as of Wednesday morning. Wallace said the matter is still under investigation.
A helicopter is required, says the SAR director
The paraglider crashed about 20 meters off a cliff after losing lift, search and rescue director Alan Hobler told Daybreak Kamloops. Because of the difficult terrain, the time of day and the need for an immediate response, Hobler said the decision was made to call in the Cormorant helicopter. A military Cormorant helicopter lifts an injured paraglider from the side of Mount Paul in Kamloops, BC, during a rescue operation Sunday, Nov. 13. (Kamloops Search and Rescue) “We really wanted to get the person to the hospital as quickly as possible,” Hobler said. “So we looked at our options and it was in an extremely difficult location. For us to do a rope rescue would be dangerous and dangerous for him too, so we chose to bring in 442 Squadron, the military Cormorant helicopter from Comox.’ Hobler added that it is “really rare” that we need to ask for military help. “They are capable of doing night operations, flying in the dark, so in the end that was our only option to get him to the hospital,” he said. The search and rescue director said that when rescue crews reached the paraglider, he was “in a lot of pain” and very cold. “He probably also had injuries to the C-spine.” Hobler said the paraglider used a cell phone to call for help after the crash. He said he was also using flashing lights and yelling and screaming for help. The man is now hospitalized with unspecified injuries. Daybreak Kamloops5:09 Kamloops Search and Rescue is responding to a paraglider that crashed near town It started as a standard call for Kamloops search and rescue, but then turned out to be a paraglider whose parachute had not deployed properly.
