A 39-year-old paraglider has been rescued this Saturday morning after falling at night in the Barranco de las Pocetas area in Risco de Famara. The incident occurred around 8:00 p.m., at which time a call alerted CECOES to the fall of the paraglider in a difficult to access area.
The affected person was in an area difficult to access by land for emergency services, so his rescue had to be done by helicopter. However, due to the proximity of sunset, the GES helicopter could not intervene. At the same time, firefighters and civil protection were activated from the operations room, whose rescue groups located the affected person at the base of the cliffs but could not reach him due to the dangerous terrain.
Given this situation, Salvamento Marítimo was contacted and sent the Helimer helicopter to try to rescue the affected person and, if not, to signal the way to the ground rescue groups using its spotlight. The Helimer sailed along the coast in Famara but could not get close to the place where the affected person was due to poor visibility. Therefore, the GES helicopter is activated so that, with the sunrise, it can carry out the rescue.
According to CECOES, this Saturday morning, firefighters and the Civil Guard, as well as two friends of the affected person, were able to reach him and informed the 1-1-2 operations room that he was conscious and oriented, with trauma to one leg.
The GES helicopter arrived in the area and after rescuing the paraglider, who was suffering from a serious open fracture in one leg, transferred him to Lanzarote Airport, where a SUC medicalized ambulance took care of his assistance and transfer to Molina Orosa.