@cdkidwell04: When Ewa Wiśnierska lost consciousness inside one of the most powerful thunderstorms ever encountered by a paraglider, her GPS continued recording every terrifying moment — revealing that she had been carried higher than Mount Everest. On February 14, 2007, Ewa Wiśnierska, a world-class paraglider originally from Poland and representing Germany, launched near Manilla, New South Wales, Australia. The 35-year-old athlete was preparing for the Paragliding World Championships, which were only days away. With years of experience and countless hours in the sky, Ewa understood the dangers of changing weather conditions. She knew storms could become deadly for pilots, and she believed she was moving away from the approaching danger. But the sky had something far more powerful waiting for her. As hundreds of pilots flew across the area, massive storm clouds began developing in the distance. Two growing storm systems eventually merged into a huge cumulonimbus cloud — a towering thunderstorm capable of creating violent winds, lightning, hail and extreme vertical currents. Without warning, the storm grabbed Ewa’s paraglider and pulled her upward with unimaginable force. Normally, a paraglider rises slowly with warm air currents. But Ewa’s instruments recorded an incredible climb rate of around 20 metres per second — meaning she was being lifted nearly 72 kilometres per hour straight into the sky. She immediately fought to escape. She pulled her controls, attempting to descend. She entered a spiral dive, a technique pilots use to lose altitude quickly. She tried emergency manoeuvres designed to break free from the rising air. Nothing worked. The storm was simply too powerful. Rain soaked her clothes. Huge pieces of hail struck her body and collected inside the paraglider’s canopy. Violent turbulence shook the wing as she struggled to keep control. The cloud around her became so thick that she could no longer see the sky, the ground, or any direction of escape. Then the situation became even more dangerous. Lightning flashed around her while thunder exploded through the storm. From around 5,000 metres above the ground, Ewa radioed her team and reported that she was still being pulled higher and could not stop the climb. The temperature continued to fall. The oxygen became dangerously limited. Ice began forming on her clothing, equipment and body. Despite every effort, exhaustion and hypoxia eventually overwhelmed her. Ewa lost consciousness. Her body hung beneath the paraglider while the storm continued carrying her upward. There was no pilot controlling the flight — only her instruments continued recording the incredible journey. The GPS data later revealed that Ewa reached an altitude of approximately 9,946 metres — around 32,600 feet. Some reports suggest the recorded height may have exceeded 10,000 metres. Either way, she had been carried more than a kilometre above the summit of Mount Everest and into an altitude normally reached by commercial aircraft. But Ewa had no aircraft cabin protecting her. No oxygen supply. No specialized high-altitude survival equipment. She was exposed directly to the extreme environment of the storm. Temperatures at that altitude were estimated to be below minus 40 degrees Celsius, possibly approaching minus 55 degrees. She remained unconscious for roughly 30 to 45 minutes as the paraglider moved uncontrollably through the storm. Doctors later suggested that unconsciousness may have slightly improved her chances of survival by reducing her body’s oxygen needs, although her survival was still considered extraordinary. When Ewa finally regained consciousness, she was still around 6,900 metres above the ground. Her gloves were frozen. Ice covered her equipment. Her face, ears and legs had suffered from extreme cold, and her body had been repeatedly struck by hail. At first, she believed she had only been unconscious for a short time. #EwaWisnierska #SurvivalStory #ExtremeWeather #humanresilience

Christy

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Thursday 06 August 2026 03:54:29 GMT