A woman who who was attempting a world-first circumnavigation of mainland Britain in a paraglider has been seriously injured and a member of her support team killed after an accident.
Sacha Dench, dubbed the 'human swan', got into difficulties in the western Highlands of Scotland as she neared the end of her journey.
Dan Burton, a member of her background team, was killed during the incident which happened late on Saturday afternoon.
Ms Dench is currently in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary in a serious condition.
She had been attempting a 3,000-mile Round Britain Climate Challenge ahead of the Cop26 conference due to start on October 31.
Ms Dench, centre, with Mr Burton, left
In statement, the trustees of the Conservation Without Borders, which was founded by Ms Dench, said the accident happened near Loch Na Gainmhich in the far north of Scotland.
READ MORE: UN Ambassador Sacha Dench arrives in Scotland
The statement said: “We are very sorry to have to confirm that Dan Burton, the support paramotorist has died as a result of the accident.
“Sacha Dench is seriously injured and is being treated in hospital. Her injuries are serious but not life-threatening
“Both highly experienced paramotorists, our thoughts are with the family of Dan Burton to whom we offer our sincere condolences.
“The incident was attended by police and medics and enquiries are underway to establish the details of the accident.”
The statement added that the families of those involved had been informed and that the Round Britain Climate Challenge would now be put on hold.
Police Scotland said officers had been alerted at around 4:45pm on Saturday.
The pair fly over Falkirk
It is believed that Ms Dench had been flying earlier in the day with Mr Burton, whose role includes documenting the climate challenge from the air, taking film and photographs.
Ms Dench and Mr Burton had landed before taking off again at around 3:30pm.
READ MORE: ‘Human swan’ set to fly around mainland Britain
The ground crew, who communicate with the flyers and pick them up when they land, thereafter lost contact.
Ms Dench had begun her climate challenge in June, taking off from Stevenston in North Ayrshire.
Over the following months, she had flown across the UK, most recently flying over the Kelpies in Falkirk on September 3.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel