An adventurer narrowly escaped death when his paramotor crashed in the Texas desert, leaving him stranded for nearly an hour with devastating injuries.
33-year-old Anthony Vella was trying out his new BGD Luna 3 paramotor just outside of Austin, in the Enchanted Rock State Park northwest of Austin. Just as the machine reached 85–100 feet at 50 MPH, it suddenly collapsed and sent Vella plummeting to the ground. The husband, and father of four young children, posted the harrowing footage from his hospital bed.
“BDG Luna 3 is not responsible for this crash,” Vella clarified before explaining that the accident was triggered due to “a small tension knot that I hadn’t seen.”
Vella went on to elaborate: “When you are fully accelerated using the trims and fully accelerated on the speed bar, if you were to apply any sort of break input to a glider that is fully accelerated, it will result in a big collapse. The tension knot was akin to applying breaks.”
“Viewer discretion is strongly advised,” Vella says before rolling footage of the crash. “I know it would be very painful for some people to watch.”
After Vella comes crashing to the ground, he immediately instructs Siri to call 911, telling the dispatcher, “I crashed my flying machine.”
As the grievously injured man waits on the phone with first responders, a good Samaritan and one of Vella’s friends arrive on the scene to provide immediate aid. While Vella examines himself to inform emergency services of his condition, he realizes, “Oh f–k, my arm is totally snapped.”
After 911 determines his location and sends responders, Vella calls his horrified wife to break the news. “The glider collapsed, and my arm is snapped,” he tells her. “I’m going to be fine, don’t worry.”
The video then cuts to first responders arriving on the scene, where they splint Vella’s arm and reassure him that he’ll be all right. “I can see your arm is obviously deformed,” one of the paramedics tells him. A firefighter later adds, “Hey man, considering you fell out of the sky, you’re doing pretty good.”
Leandra arrives on the scene just as the paramedics are preparing to transport Vella to the hospital. As she kneels beside him, weeping, she asks, “Is it just your arm?” Vella responds woozily: “Yeah.”
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