KARACHI: A young woman suffered serious injuries while parasailing when she fell directly into the water near Do Darya, it emerged on Tuesday.

The parasailing — sport activity of being pulled up into the air behind a boat while wearing a special parachute — is being conducted by the Karachi Gliding Club (KGC).

A video that went viral on social media shows parasailing gear floating on water as someone can be heard in the background saying the woman doing parasailing and the pilot fell into the water due to a technical fault in the equipment.

When contacted, the owner of the KGC said that the incident happened because of a kite string that appeared out of nowhere, cutting one side of the gear’s strings. This caused the pilot to make a “semi-controlled” landing, he added.

“We typically aim to land on land, but due to the kite string interference, the ground distance was approximately 20-30 metres, leading to this incident. However, no one sustained critical injuries,” he stated.

Mariam A Wahab, a social media user, posted on Facebook that her sister, accompanied by her husband, went for parasailing around midday. However, she fell into the water just before landing. She shared a video in her post, showing a boat approaching two men who are attempting to rescue someone from the water. The video is shot from a distance and pleas of a woman who is screaming ‘please save my daughter’ can be heard.

Dawn contacted the victim’s brother, who said: “No one was there from the management of KGC to rescue her. There was a boat nearby, and luckily it had a doctor who rescued her and got her to South City Hospital. Her backbone is bent due to multiple fractures and she will undergo a major surgery, however she’s out of danger right now.”

“When the incident occurred, the management did not even bother to stop the other members from gliding,” he said.

“The family plans to sue the organisation once the patient gets better,” he added.

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2024