Tim Collard, age unknown, was transported to the emergency room with serious but non life threatening injuries shortly after 5 p.m., according to emergency response personnel.
According to witnesses at the scene, Collard was practicing touch-and-go landings on the north end of the runway — where participants with the Big Spring International Hang Gliding Competition have been using the aircrafts to take off from the Big Spring Airport — when his craft experienced some form of mechanical failure.
“I was watching him practice from up near the hangar (located adjacent to the airport office),” said Terry Wofford, a volunteer assisting with the annual hang gliding competition. “He had made four or five touch-and-go landings and went back to do another, but when I looked for him, I couldn't see him anymore. That's when I headed that way.”
Wofford said he found the ultralight crashed just west of the runway's chain link fence, with Collard trapped in the wreckage.
“His legs were all twisted up in it,” said Wofford. “He had several broken fingers and a compound fracture in his arm, and possibly some broken ribs. He also said his back was hurt. I was amazed he was still conscious and talking to me.
“He (Collard) told me as he came in for the landing his ultralight simply wouldn't turn the way he needed it to, that something mechanical had failed. He had spiraled down and that's when he hit the ground. There wasn't anything he could do to stop it.”
Wofford said he helped the man free himself from the crashed aircraft and took him to a nearby pickup truck after he became light-headed.
“He was afraid he was going into shock,” said Wofford.
Collard is one of several ultralight pilots participating in the hang gliding competition, where the small aircraft are used to tow the gliders up into the sky before being released.
Contact Staff Writer Thomas Jenkins at 263-7331 ext. 232 or by e-mail at
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