Shimla, March 12: A 64-year-old US national, who got stranded on a snow-covered mountain range in Himachal Pradesh while paragliding, was rescued by a helicopter team on Tuesday after being marooned for nearly 40 hours at 4,200 feet, officials said.
Max Kent McGowan was rescued from Uttarala mountain in Kangra district’s Baijnath sub-division by a helicopter rescue team, Deputy Commissioner Sandeep Kumar said.
Kumar said a local youth, Rahul, was “para dropped from the helicopter and he secured McGowan to be airlifted”. The youth stayed back as the helicopter could take one person at a time, he said.
Rahul was airlifted by the helicopter on its second sortie, the DC said, adding that the US citizen would be taken for medical check-up to Baijnath.
“Kudos to him (Rahul) and the other team members,” who helped in rescuing the stranded paraglider, he said.
McGowan got stranded around 5 pm on Sunday while he was paragliding over the mountain range above Uttarala village. He was rescued on Tuesday around 11.45 am, Kumar said.
Officials said as per available information, McGowan took off from Bir-Billing on Sunday and got stranded at a height of 4,200 metres on the snow-covered Uttarala mountain of the Dhauladhar range.
He had to land due to a decrease in pressure on one side of his parachute. This sent him spinning down and he crashed on the mountain. However, because of a thick layer of fresh snow, he landed safely, they said.
On Monday, McGowan communicated his situation through radio to the manager of a hotel where he was staying.
The manager, in turn, informed authorities about him, they said, adding that McGowan could only be rescued by deploying a helicopter.
The helicopter, however, could not been able to reach Baijnath on Monday due to bad weather, but on Tuesday it reached and rescued the US citizen. PTI
