‘Very fortunate’ paraglider survives crash into Colorado lake, but another drowns

Rescuers helped save one of two paragliders who crashed into a Colorado lake on Saturday, but the second man drowned, officials say.

Two motorized paragliders were skimming over the water on Lake Pueblo when they crashed at 8:30 a.m. near Pedro Point, Colorado Parks and Wildlife rangers said in a news release.

“And I kind of messed it up and I hit the water pretty hard and I ended up in the water,” paraglider Roman Uskovitz told KKTV. “I’m very fortunate I’m here.”

Paraglider Aaron McDaniel, 46, died in the crash, reported the Pueblo County Coroner’s Office on Twitter.

McDaniel “became tangled in the parachute, fan and ropes of the paraglider” and appeared to have drowned, park manager Joe Stadterman said in the release.

Uskovitz says his water rescue system deployed, keeping him afloat but leaving him stranded in the water, KKTV reported. That’s when onlooker Fabyan Mandanares swam out to help.

“I’m sitting there screaming the whole time ‘we’re coming man, we’re coming, like don’t give up on us, don’t give up on us, like we’re coming,’” Mandanares told the station.

Park rangers later recovered McDaniel’s body from the lake, the release said.

“This is a tragic loss of life,” Stadterman said in the release, urging people to wear life jackets. “And it underscores the importance of being extremely careful around the water.”

This story was originally published July 6, 2021 at 11:37 AM with the headline "‘Very fortunate’ paraglider survives crash into Colorado lake, but another drowns."