First-time hang glider left hanging on for his life after pilot 'forgot to attach him'

I'm pretty sure that most people have at least one extreme sport on their bucket list, right? maybe you want to go hang-gliding, or rock climbing, or bungee jumping, but like me, your paranoid brain just can't help but imagine everything going horribly wrong. We're always assured though, over and over again, that instructors running these things know what they're doing, and that the whole thing is totally safe. Still, that doesn't mean that they can't slip up from time to time, as this terrifying video proves.

Florida native Chris Gursky decided to try hang-gliding for the first time this month while on holiday in Switzerland. However, while there he found himself in a chilling life-or-death scenario, after his instructor reportedly forgot to strap him into the glider, which left him literally hanging on for dear life. Chris later uploaded video footage of the scary incident after he and his teacher leapt off a 4,000 foot mountain edge, and he was forced to desperately grip a metal bar on the glider until the two of them had landed safely on terra firma.

Commenting on the terrifying incident, Chris stated: "My body weight shifted straight down and I found myself hanging on for my life. I remember looking down and thinking, this is it. I was losing grip with my right hand, that was holding onto a strap on the pilot's right shoulder. He was trying to make a beeline to the landing field as he knew what the situation could bring. My left hand was on the crossbar that was ultimately the landing gear, with a wheel on each side."

He added: "As we were going down for a hot landing I was slowly losing my grip with my right hand as I was swinging in the wind with the glider. The pilot grabbed my hand, but like in the movies, it was a slow-motion slipping of the grip until my right hand slipped off and I grabbed another strap on his left side for a bit but this slipped off also. For two mins 14 seconds I had to hang on for my life! The landing was a rough one, but I lived to tell the story."

Despite the fact that he came close to suffering a potentially fatal accident, Chris did commend the pilot for the way he dealt with the situation. Chris stated: "While the pilot made a critical error in our pre-flight set up by not attaching me to the glider, he did all he could to get me down to the ground as quickly as possible while grabbing onto my harness and flying with one hand. I will go hang gliding again as I did not enjoy my first flight."

Yeah, that sounds like an understatement. If I were him then the most dangerous thing I'd be getting up to would be ultimate frisbee - but each to their own I suppose...