A YouTuber tested gravity the hard way by flipping his motorized paraglider and nosediving 85 ft into the ground at 48mph. Spoiler alert: gravity won.
Anthony Vella was test-flying a BGD Luna 3 at Enchanted Rock State Park, northwest of Austin when it suddenly collapsed from a height of 85 to 100 feet.
Happy to be alive but even happier to have captured such choice content, Vella shared the footage of the crash on his YouTube channel. He also included the painful thirty minutes he lay on the ground, waiting for paramedics to reach his remote location.
Footage of the crash itself made its way to X (formerly Twitter).
The complete YouTube video posted Saturday opens with Vella lying in his hospital bed, receiving treatment for a fractured neck, back, pelvis, and a shattered right arm. He detailed that the paraglider crash occurred because he overlooked a minor pension knot in his pre-flight checks.
Activating the brakes on a glider at full speed causes it to collapse, a phenomenon similarly induced by a tension knot snag. Vella’s grand entrance to Earth was caught from three angles, with his screams upon touchdown serving as an impromptu review of gravity’s harsh welcome committee.
No doubt the screams of agony got plenty of folks to smash that like button on YouTube.
“Please help, I’ve crashed my flying machine…”, Vella implored a 911 dispatcher no doubt thinking it was a prank call.
As he waited for help, Vella’s self examination of his injuries also makes for a few morbid laughs. “The arm is obviously deformed so we’re not going to move that,” he remarks at one point.
The YouTuber Breaks the News That He Crashed His Motorized Paraglider to His Wife
Eventually, a good samaritan arrived and assisted Vella until medical professionals could reach their location. They also helped the YouTuber call his wife to tell her the news that he crashed his motorized paraglider and severely injured himself while creating content for the internet.
“The glider collapsed and my arm is snapped… I’m going to be fine, my love, don’t worry,” Vella told his wife, Leandra. “What do you mean, don’t worry?”, his exasperated spouse moaned.
Approximately 12 minutes post-crash, the good samaritan staying with Vella spotted the ambulance far in the distance. The footage jumps to the paramedics’ arrival, with the bystander estimating a 30-minute wait.
As paramedics inquired about Vella’s condition, Leandra arrived, panicked, and rushed to his side. They splinted his arm amid his screams of pain and promised morphine as they lifted him onto a stretcher.
Likely sensing her husband put himself in unnecessary danger, wasting the time of medical professionals, Leandra heartily thanked the workers who helped him as the ambulance sped through the desert to the hospital.
Vella, speaking from his hospital bed, said he had no hard feelings towards the paramotor, calling it an excellent machine. He cautioned viewers to meticulously inspect their glider three times before taking off.
In the video description, Leandra details that her husband will have to undergo multiple surgeries on the path to recovery. Sensing content creation pay dirt, Vella promised to document his medical journey for his YouTube subscribers.