Parasailing – an adventure sport enjoyed by a couple, Ajit and Sarala(31), on the beach of the Una coast of Gujarat took a horrific turn when the parachute’s rope snapped and the couple was airborne without an anchor.
Videos of the incident went viral over social media that showed Ajit’s brother Rakesh panicking after seeing the rope snap.
The incident took place around 1 am on Sunday when Sarala Kathad , a teacher at a government primary school in Dwarka and her husband – Ajit Kathad went parasailing off the Nagoa beach. About a minute after they were airborne, their parachute’s rope which was tied to the powerboat snapped and left it without any anchor.
The parachute landed around 100m off the coast and the couple was rescued by the lifeguards of Palms Adventure and Motorsports (PAM), a private firm running parasailing service.
Talking the media, Ajit, a multipurpose health worker at Ghed Bagasara primary health center in Mangrol Taluka of Junagadh said that after the rope snapped, they attained the maximum altitude and the parachute started to sway from one way to another. Within seconds they plunged into the sea.
Ajit said that even though they had life jackets, both him and his wife were speechless for a few minutes out of shock. But he was thankful that none of them had any physical injuries.
Satvik – PAM proprietor’s son informed that the rope had snapped all of a sudden, probably because of the strong winds. They change rope after 100 flights and the rope used for them was around that 100 flights old.
However, the rope reportedly didn’t snap from the section that Rakesh had earlier pointed out.
Satvik claimed that they always inform the customers about the risk involved in parasailing and that they fly at their own risk.
