BLOSSOM VALLEY (CNS) - A paraglider was critically injured Thursday in a solo crash on a remote, rocky hillside near Lakeside.
A witness saw the man plummeting toward the ground off Quail Canyon Road in Blossom Valley shortly before 2:30 p.m., Lakeside Fire Department Division Chief John Hisaw said.
After locating the victim with airborne help from a sheriff's helicopter crew, emergency personnel had to hike for about an hour to get to the secluded spot where he had gone down, Hisaw said.
A county helicopter crew then hoisted the unconscious man, who appears to be in his 30s or early 40s, into their aircraft and flew him to nearby Blossom Valley Elementary School. From there, he was loaded into an air ambulance for a flight to Sharp Memorial Hospital in San Diego.
The man, who apparently had been gliding by himself, was carrying no identification but had a cellphone with the language set to German and loaded with German telephone numbers.
Authorities will try to use the phone to identity the man, whose injuries were believed to be life-threatening, Hisaw said..
