Shocking footage captured the moment a plane crashed into a paraglider before tearing through her parachute, sending her spiralling through the air.
A video clip recorded by thrill-seeker Sabrina, 44, shows her almost being killed by a small aircraft racing over the Schmittenhöhe mountain on the eastern end of the Kitzbühel Alps in Austria.
Remarkably, no one died in the incident, with both Sabrina and the pilot able to land safely.
The clip – taken from a camera positioned on the parachutist’s legs – shows her initially gliding freely above the picturesque landscape.
Sabrina then turns her head to her left as the sound of an approaching aircraft grows louder.
The plane appears from above the mountain below and zooms into shot, clattering into the glider’s parachute and severing her ropes before she has a chance to react.
It misses Sabrina by a matter of feet but tears her thin canopy into shreds, leaving her plummeting towards the ground.
While flailing above the Alps and descending fast, Sabrina has the presence of mind to untangle herself from the mess of ropes and wires and eventually deploy an emergency parachute just in time.
This is the moment a plane crashes into a paraglider and tears her parachute apart as she spirals in mid-air
Footage recorded by thrill-seeker Sabrina shows her almost being killed by a small aircraft racing over the Schmittenhöhe mountain on the eastern end of the Kitzbühel Alps in Austria
In the seconds after the freak collision, the paraglider can be seen screaming in panic, but manages to save her own life with her quick thinking.
After falling to the ground, Sabrina was soon collected by a police helicopter and rushed to a local airport.
The small aircraft, meanwhile, recovered from the shock collision and was able to land safely at Zell am See Airport, according to officials.
The pilot, 28, said there was no way he could have avoided crashing into Sabrina.
In a post on Instagram, Sabrina said: ‘I actually still can’t believe that I’m sitting here typing this—and that, aside from a few nasty bruises and some general contusions, absolutely nothing happened’.
The paraglider regularly posts videos of her adventures to her social media and has over 8,000 followers, although her latest clip has garnered 175,000 likes in less than 24 hours.
In March, a powered paraglider pilot nicknamed the ‘Human Swan’ sobbed at an inquest into the death of a fellow flier whom she collided with in mid-air, and described being ‘paranoid’ due to a previous crash.
Climate activist Sacha Dench was attempting a record-breaking 3,000-mile trip around Britain when the aircraft she was flying was involved in a collision with one piloted by Dan Burton, 54.
Mr Burton, from Devon, died in the incident, which happened on September 18, 2021, near Loch Na Gainmhich in Sutherland, Caithness. Ms Dench survived but suffered serious injuries.
The expedition, which was named the Round Britain Climate Challenge, started in June and was intended to highlight the issue of climate change ahead of the COP26 conference, which took place in Glasgow later that year.
Ms Dench had previously received acclaim for a similar expedition recounted in a BBC documentary, Flight Of The Swans, which saw her follow the path of swans migrating from Russia to the UK and later resulted in her being dubbed the ‘human swan’.
Giving evidence to a fatal accident inquiry (FAI) at Tain Sheriff Court, Ms Dench recalled an earlier collision with another pilot while paragliding onto a hill in Wales.
Several times during the hearing, Ms Dench said she could not remember specific details, and at one point fought back tears as she said: ‘It was four-and-a-half years ago and I hit my head pretty hard.’
