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A retired police officer who went missing while paragliding on Lantau Island Monday afternoon was finally found and sent to hospital but died in the early hours of Tuesday.
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The deceased 74-year-old man, surnamed Tang, went paragliding with his friends around 2.30 pm on Monday but was blown away from the estimated landing zone due to unexpected strong winds.
His friends later successfully contacted him using radio-communication devices and Tang said he was hanging from a tree and didn’t know where he was. An inter-departmental search was soon initiated and over 60 rescuers from the High Angle Rescue Team and the Mountain Search & Rescue Team were fielded.
After about seven hours at around 9.25 pm, Tang was located near a slope of about 80 meters down a hiking trail, south of Sunset Peak. Firefighters said Tang was found unconscious at the time and they were unable to retrieve Tang with the helicopter due to strong winds and mist in the area.
The steep and slippery roads also made the rescue mission more difficult and it took rescuers around another five hours to transfer Tang to a flat surface away from the hill.
It is understood that rescuers had to stop to perform resuscitation and inject emergency drugs during the transfer, consuming more time than expected.
Around 2.30 am on Tuesday, Tang was sent to North Lantau Hospital where he was eventually pronounced dead.
Police said a post-mortem examination will be performed to confirm the actual cause of death.
