A 27-year-old Canadian paraglider, Megan Elizabeth, who went missing after her glider crash-landed in the higher reaches of the Dhauladhar ranges on Saturday, was found dead by a rescue team on Monday.
The Baijnath administration had launched a rescue operation on Sunday with the help of climbers and volunteers from the Bir Billing Paragliding Association (BPA).
Elizabeth, a solo flier, had taken off from Billing and was expected to land at Chogan, but lost her route and crashed near Talan Jot, north of Himani Chamunda temple, at an altitude of about 3,900 metres.
Rahul Singh, a member of the rescue team, was the first to be air-dropped into the area on Sunday evening. He reached the crash site later that night and found the paraglider unresponsive.
Officials said Elizabeth had likely died due to exposure to extreme cold and injuries sustained during the landing on rocky terrain.
Singh remained at the site with the body through the night in freezing temperatures. On Monday morning, five more members of the rescue team were flown in. They relocated the body about 500 metres uphill from the crash site to facilitate airlifting.
Later in the afternoon, the body was brought to Gaggal Airport and will be sent to New Delhi after post-mortem, to be handed over to the Canadian Embassy, which has been informed of the incident.
According to officials, Elizabeth was not familiar with the topography of the Dhauladhar region. Sudden weather changes and difficult terrain have contributed to several paragliding accidents in the area in recent years.
In the past five years, 26 paragliding crashes have been reported in Kangra and Mandi districts, resulting in 12 fatalities, including foreign nationals, and several injuries. In some incidents, neither the pilot nor the glider could be located.
