Surviving an 8,500-foot fall in Colombia Lucky escape for paraglider

Surviving an 8,500-foot fall in Colombia
Lucky escape for paraglider
Published on Mar 1, 2016, 7:29 pm AST
By Sue-Ann Wayow


Thought he would die: Marc Ramlal suffered the worst of paragliding mishaps.


ON February 1, Marc Ramlal participated in an annual paragliding competition in Colombia. It did not go well.
His equipment failed and Ramlal plummeted more than 8,000 feet into a densely forested area.
Ramlal, 44, said he thought he was going to die and spent his time waiting to hit the ground by asking God for forgiveness for all the wrong he ever did.

He did not die nor was he seriously injured and Ramlal now is anxious to tell his tale as to how he survived the fall, as well as about six hours in the forest with one bottle of water and a sandwich.
A miracle is how he describes his experience.

Ramlal lives at Otaheitie and is the owner of Custom Graffix Ltd, a signage company, at Cipero Street, San Fernando.
He is the husband of Shellian Ramlal and father of two sons, Brandon and Christian. When he was stranded in Colombia, it was his family who he thought of most and was even hesitant to tell his wife what happened.
Avid sportsman

Ramlal, who has been paragliding for eight years, is also engaged in rock climbing and has participated in kung fu, kickboxing and archery.
Along with a team of six locals, he left for the Fai II Open Roldanillo competition in Colombia on January 23. The seven-day event took place from January 26 to February 2. This was the third time Ramlal was participating in the competition, but at a different level. Some 200 participants also competed.
It was on the sixth day of the competition that Ramlal encountered his challenge... and escaped with his life.
Around noon, Ramlal had a collapse of his glider after being in the air for an hour and a half when his lines became entangled. That was when he started to fall.

Though the fall from 8,500 feet was only two minutes, to Ramlal it seemed like eternity.

He told the Express: “The area I was in was a mountainous area. It was very challenging, it was very turbulent and as soon as I was about to turn, the glider collapsed. As soon as it collapsed, the glider spun around and all the lines got twisted.
“I kept trying to free the lines and I wasn’t able to free the lines. It was really too difficult. Unfortunately, when I threw the reserve chute it ended up getting caught in the glider itself and everything got worse. So I was just spinning coming down to the ground. From that height to the ground was like a two-minute fall.”

Analysis from his flight computer showed the fall was at 120 kilometres per hour, Ramlal said.
“At that point I realised that there was nothing I could do anymore. I had no other options. I was just wondering what else I could do and there was nothing, so I just resolved myself that I am going to die and I said ‘you know what, God just forgive me for my sins whatever I committed’ and I said ‘Jesus save me’, but I didn’t think of it that I was going to be saved in terms of my physical life.
“On the way down, I was praying for the children, I was praying for my wife. I was just waiting for it (death) to happen and I felt the hand of God just rest me on the ground and when I rested on the ground, I got up and I realised like nothing happened. I didn’t feel anything. I dropped on my knees and began to give God thanks for being alive because I didn’t think I would physically survive.”
His right arm in pain, Ramlal thought it was broken and he put a splint on it just for safety. His jaw hurt, he was disoriented and he had no clue which direction was which.

“I didn’t know how far I was from civilisation,” Ramlal said.

He started videotaping his experience when he landed. Though rescue helicopters were searching for him, he could not be seen among the trees. All his tracking devices were not working and Ramlal struggled to get to a mountaintop to order to get reception for his cellphone.
When he was able to reach a mountain, Ramlal realised there was no money on his phone and he sent a WhatsApp message (“I am alive”) to the Paragliding Association of Trinidad and Tobago.
Climbing mountains

By that time he was completely exhausted and could barely entertain calls or more messages. He tried to have the helicopters rescue him, but was told he needed to go through the forests alone because of his location.
He climbed more mountains, went through valleys, followed horse trails and was excited to see cattle troughs for water—but they were all dry.

He eventually made it out to a main road where he was greeted by people who were searching for him on the ground.
Everyone was excited and shocked to see him because the helicopters were searching for a body and not a living person, he said.
The next day, which was the last day of the competition, nine horses were rented to venture into the area to collect the destroyed equipment, valued at US$10,000.

On February 3, Ramlal returned home a changed person.

Although he had near-death experiences before, Ramlal said: “I am a whole new person.”
He intends to continue mentoring young people as he has already been doing. “I know I need to do more with them. I have a whole new perspective on things,” he said.

And when asked if he would be paragliding again, Ramlal replied: “Of course!”

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