Glider destroyed

Pilot had to make an emergency landing in a Carinthian cornfield

A pilot (44) from Switzerland wanted to fly his glider from Mauterndorf in Salzburg to sunny Mölltal in Carinthia - but the medium-haul flight came to an abrupt end in the middle of a cornfield!

The Swiss pilot wanted to fly from Salzburg to Carinthia on Saturday - he had already reached the municipality of Rangersdorf by 3 pm. Right there, the glider pilot was unable to gain enough altitude to fly back towards Salzburg due to a lack of thermals.

Devastating crash in a cornfield
"He therefore decided to make an off-field landing in the fields there," as the police report: "During this landing, however, he grazed a cornfield with one wing, whereupon the glider spun in and crashed."

Despite the crash landing, the 44-year-old was uninjured, but his plane suffered serious damage. Two police patrols, the Red Cross, the Libelle police helicopter and Alpin 6 from Salzburg, as well as the Winklern, Lainach, Rangersdorf and Stall im Mölltal fire brigades were deployed.