Max Kent McGowan was rescued from Uttarala mountain in Kangra district's Baijnath sub-division by a helicopter rescue team, Deputy Commissioner (DC) Sandeep Kumar said.
Representational image
Shimla: 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 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 (DC) 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 will be taken for medical check-up to Baijnath. "Kudos to him (Rahul) and the other team members", who helped in rescue 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 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 meters 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.
ADVERTISEMENT
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 be able to reach Baijnath on Monday due to bad weather, but on Tuesday it reached and rescued the US citizen.
Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates
This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
