Incident Details

Pilot took off from Willard, Utah around 5:45pm on Friday evening. Ground winds were light (4-8 mph from S-SW). He immediately climbed toward the mountains to the east - massive shear cliffs with deep pocket canyons. Flight lasted 22 minutes during which he climbed 5,000 feet toward Willard Peak. He climbed steadily along the NW-SE running range maintaining decent distance. Winds at neighboring peak 10 miles SE were 16-23 mph from S-SE. As he neared Willard Peak, he turned north briefly then back south for final approach. Willard Peak has a false peak directly south at slightly lower elevation. When approaching closer from the south, he hit lee side rotor aggressively at approximately 50-100 feet AGL. Wing became unflyable and he plummeted quickly to ground with no visible reserve deployment. Struck ground about 100 ft shy of peak on southwest side. Suspected line-over or prop strike on lines in extreme turbulence. Reserve was believed to be carried based on social media posts but unclear if deployment was attempted. Gaggle tracking alerted emergency contacts who notified SAR. SAR arrived late that night and pilot had already perished. Body and gear recovered by helicopter next day. Dashcam footage from passing couple captured incident from distance showing steady aircraft dropping instantly.

Pilot flew into severe lee side rotor turbulence created by strong south-southeast winds (16-23 mph) hitting Willard Peak and the false peak to its south. Created pocket of violent rotor that was not noticeable when pilot was lower and farther out. At 50-100 feet AGL, no altitude to recover from the extreme turbulence that likely caused line-over or prop strike on lines, rendering wing unflyable.

Pilot died from impact. Unknown if death was instantaneous or occurred shortly after.

Age 25, male, PPG 2 rating, 10-50 hours experience

2.7 m/s

Ground: 4-8 mph from S-SW. At altitude near peak: 16-23 mph from S-SE. Strong and gusty.

Evening flight, strong winds at altitude, thermal activity present

Thermally active with gusty conditions and rotor turbulence

Fatal injury sustained when pilot flew into lee side rotor near high mountain peak. PPG Type: Foot Launch – Single Occupant Type of Injury: Fatality Pilot Details: Age: 25 Gender: Male Highest rating held at the time of the incident: Intermediate – PPG 2 Pilot experience level: 10-50 hours Gear Details: Wing Brand: Ozone Model: Roadster 3 Size: Unknown Paramotor Frame: Macfly Travel Frame with Vittorazi Moster 185 Incident Details: October 25, 2024 6:00 PM Location of the incident: Willard, Utah Type of Incident: Collision with terrain or ground obstacle Pilot took off from the small town of Willard, Utah on Friday evening around 5:45pm. Reported winds on the ground were rather light in comparison to the area of the incident. 4-8 mph out of the South-Southwest. Pilot immediately started to climb towards the mountains to the east. The mountains in question are quite unforgiving. Massive, shear cliffs with deep pocket canyons. All of it impossible to land on let alone hike to it easily. Flight only lasted 22 minutes but he spent most of the time climbing the 5000 feet towards the highest peak (Willard Peak). He climbed steadily along the range maintaining a decent distance from them. The general direction the range runs is NW-SE. The reported winds at the neighboring peak 10 miles to the SE were saying 16-23 mph winds from the S-SE. I suspect the winds for him on climb out were fairly smooth but strong because that area would be exposed to wind directly. As he neared Willard Peak, but still below it in terms of elevation, he turned to the north again for a couple minutes before turning back towards the south for the final time. When flying south, he approached Willard Peak a lot closer. The geography of Willard Peak is not a standard peak, there is a false peak that sits directly to the south of it but slightly lower. With that wind direction from the south, it would have created a pocket of lee side rotor that was previously unnoticeable when he was lower and farther out. As he approached and passed Willard Peak, it appears he hit this rotor aggressively and likely caused the wing to be unflyable. The pilot was at an altitude of roughly 50-100 feet from the nearest point of the ground. He plummeted quickly to the ground with no visible signs of a reserve toss. He struck the ground about 100 ft shy of the peak on the southwest side. I would assume there was some sort of line over or the prop potentially struck the lines of the glider in the extreme turbulence. Unfortunately the pilot was suspected of carrying a reserve due to seeing recent social media posts which showed a reserve was attached. It is unknown if there was an attempt to throw the reserve at all but the video does not seem to show it. A lot of this information was obtained through Gaggle. Which is exactly how the family was able to notify SAR about a potential crash. After Gaggle notified his emergency contact, they were unable to reach him so they SAR was sent up to the last point the pilot was on the flight track. When they arrived to incident by foot, it was late and the pilot had already perished. It is unknown if he was dead on impact or not. After the next day, a helicopter was sent up to recover the body and gear. By chance, there happened to be a couple on a drive up there and they had dash cam footage of the incident in real time. It's far away but you can clearly see a "steady" aircraft drop instantly. Flight Window: Evening Wind Speed: Strong Wind (10-15 mph) Type: Gusty / Thermal Activity / Dust Devil Phase of Flight: Cruise/In Flight Type of Injury: Fatality