Two men rescued after paragliding mishaps in Sydney, NSW

News.com.au

2 days ago

A paraglider is 'lucky to be alive' following a gruelling five-hour rescue after crashing into a cliff on the south coast of Sydney on Saturday afternoon.
Paolo, a man in his 50s collided into a cliff near Otford Rd at Stanwell Tops about 1pm on Saturday, before plunging down 10 metres and injuring his shoulder.
The five-hour rescue operation was conducted as a joint effort between the NSW Police Rescue, SES crews, specialist paramedics and Fire and Rescue NSW, to stabilise and hoist Paolo up the cliff face and through intense bushland to safety.
'I'm so grateful to have this amazing team, they are incredible and yeah, I'll be fine,' Paolo said, while atop a rescue stretcher.
'It was my mistake actually, I did some move.
'Everybody knows where I was, so I was just calm and waited for the rescue'.
The injured Paolo was taken in a stable condition to St George Hospital about 6pm, by paramedics.
7News reports the authorities thought Paolo would be in a much more serious condition with a rescue chopper arriving to airlift him, but he was instead transported by road to hospital to treat his shoulder injury.
Paolo said he 'can't wait to get out there and get paragliding again very soon'.
In a separate incident, another man was rescued Sunday morning after a 13-hour operation in the Southern Highlands.
Emergency services responded to reports a man had fallen four metres onto rocks at the base of Funnels Creek Waterfall at 2pm on Saturday.
Police were told a 24-year-old man was with a group of friends and was climbing the 8m ledge before jumping into a Rockpool.
The 24-year-old was found to be conscious but suffering injuries to his head, right shoulder and left ankle.
The man was retrieved by vertical rope lift when it was determined he could not be winched out by helicopter.
A joint effort was conducted with a helicopter transporting a medical crew to the scene to stabilise the man before the retrieval operation was commenced with the police Rescue, NSW ambulance paramedics, and SES members.
In the early hours of Sunday, at 3am, the man was successfully extricated and was taken by road ambulance to Goulburn Base Hospital in a stable condition.