Some of you may have already heard that Stefan Schmoker, one of the Swiss Team Pilots, sustained fatal injuries during today’s task.
Stefan and the rest of the field were flying in a perfectly normal place where we fly every day and nobody was on the bar or pushing hard near the ground. In fact we were all soaring a ridge a kilometre or so from take off trying to gain height a few minutes after the start of the task.
I saw Stefan coming towards me soaring the cliff face with a huge cravat in the glider. He was managing to maintain his course and was working to try to get the cravat out as he was flying. The conditions were, however, strongly thermic and after a couple of rotations caused by the glider getting pushed up on the open side by strong gusts, each time with near recoveries between, he impacted heavily in a gulley half way up the ridge. We can’t be sure but we think he didn’t throw his reserve because he was in a very bad position to do so, with a cliff face and very high trees, not to mention strong thermal winds making it an unappealing prospect. He probably also thought he could recover the glider.
Andre Rainsford from South Africa, Shane Hill from Australia and myself were all within 50 or so metres of the impact point and we tried to shout down but got no response. We had all assessed the possibility of landing but in the very turbulent air near the ridge we were all fighting for control of our own gliders and none of us thought we had the necessary skill to get a glider into the only available tiny patch of bare rock a few metres from the cliff edge without putting ourselves into very serious danger and possibly creating another accident to deal with. The trees here are 40 metres high and prone to breaking if landed in so even this was not an option.
Heli Eichholzer from Austria did finally manage a heroic landing nearby on a tiny opening to give assistance just as the ambulances arrived a few minutes after the accident. He deserves the admiration of the entire flying community for demonstrating such amazing bravery and cool-headedness under extreme pressure and flying conditions.
The task continued and when we got to goal news was quick to spread that Stefan had died of his injuries, apparently sometime after being rescued though this is not confirmed at the present time.
Our thoughts must be with his family and team mates on this dreadful day.
Salut Stefan…
Mark H
