Paraglider Defies Death After Freak Updraft Sucks Him 28,000 Feet Into Sky
On May 24, Peng Yujian, a 55-year-old paraglider, was already roughly 10,000 feet (3,000 meters) above sea level, testing the fit of his new paragliding equipment. About 20 minutes in, a powerful updraft known as a 'cloud suck' shot him about 18,000 feet (5,500 meters) higher.
Peng caught the wild event on a camera mounted on his glider, which naturally went viral after being posted on Douyin, China's version of TikTok. The video shows Peng coated in ice and holding on for dear life to the glider's controls. He says he may have lost consciousness during his unexpected descent.
'I felt the lack of oxygen. My hands were frozen outside. I kept trying to talk on the radio,' Peng said in the Douyin video after landing safely 20 miles (33 kilometers) from his launch point, according to Sixth Tone.
Peng was in the air for more than an hour, during which he was exposed to temperatures nearing minus 40 degrees Celsius (which equals −40 degrees Fahrenheit). 'Everything ahead [was] a vast expanse of whiteness,' he told Chinese broadcaster CCTV News.
Cloud suck is a meteorological phenomenon that can be deadly for paragliders. It refers to a strong upward air movement caused by powerful thermals—columns of rising warm air created when the ground heats unevenly from the sun—feeding into a cumulus cloud. As the updraft gets stronger, it creates a low pressure region at the cloud base, drawing in even more hot air from below. This results in a positive feedback loop that can cause wind speeds of over 1,000 feet (300 meters) per minute.
Ewa Wiśnierska, a paraglider from Germany, still holds the dubious record of the highest altitude reached after being pulled by a cloud suck, according to The Sydney Morning Herald. An updraft flung her roughly 33,000 feet (10,000 m) into the sky in 2007. The summit of Mount Everest, the highest point above sea level on earth, is 29,029 feet (8,848 meters) above sea level.
The Chinese government grounded Peng after his 'unsanctioned' flight for six months, citing safety regulations, according to a report from the Aero Sports Association of Gansu Province obtained by The Guardian. It's unclear whether that remains in effect, but something tells me he might not want to go paragliding again anytime soon.
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