25 May,2026 04:56 PM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
As the plane struck her canopy, Sabrina can be heard screaming in panic as she immediately lost control and began spiraling violently towards the ground. PIC/X
In a dramatic and terrifying mid-air incident captured on camera, a 44-year-old Austrian woman named Sabrina narrowly escaped death after a small sightseeing plane smashed through her paraglider canopy in northern Austria,, according to the New York Post.
The heart-stopping first-person footage, posted by Sabrina on Instagram, shows the terrifying moment the plane plowed directly into her rig just feet above her head while she was flying near the scenic Schmittenhöhe mountain on Saturday afternoon. The incident occurred in the popular paragliding area near Zell am See and Piesendorf.
As the plane struck her canopy, Sabrina can be heard screaming in panic as she immediately lost control and began spiraling violently towards the ground. The impact split her main parachute canopy in half. In the harrowing video, she is seen desperately struggling to deploy her emergency reserve parachute while plummeting at high speed.
Despite the chaos, the experienced paraglider managed to untangle herself and successfully activate her rescue chute. Her camera captured the final hard landing on the ground, accompanied by a loud grunt of impact.
"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," Sabrina wrote in German on her Instagram post, describing it as her "second birthday."
According to reports, Sabrina was later picked up by a police helicopter and taken to a local airport. The sightseeing plane, a Cessna piloted by a 28-year-old man, managed to land safely at Zell am See Airport despite the collision. The pilot reportedly told authorities that he had no way to avoid the paraglider.
The video has since gone viral on social media, drawing widespread reactions from aviation experts and adventure enthusiasts who have called the escape "miraculous".
Austrian authorities, including Salzburg State Police, have launched an investigation into the incident to determine how the collision occurred in the busy airspace used by paragliders.
This close-call incident highlights the potential risks involved in shared airspace between powered aircraft and unpowered paragliders in popular tourist destinations like the Austrian Alps.
