Althouse: "Mr. Peng was apparently the victim of a potentially dangerous phenomenon that paragliders call 'cloud suck,' in which a pilot is rapidly drawn upward into a cloud."

May 30, 2025

"Mr. Peng was apparently the victim of a potentially dangerous phenomenon that paragliders call 'cloud suck,' in which a pilot is rapidly drawn upward into a cloud."

"At extreme altitudes, people risk hypoxia, or oxygen deprivation, because of the thin air. Severe hypoxia can cause organ damage or death. Still, Mr. Peng managed to land about 20 miles away from where he took off. In stable health and recovering from his surprise flight, he has since said, 'Thinking about it still makes me quite scared,' China Daily reported on Thursday."

From "Chinese Paraglider Reaches Near-Record Heights, Over 28,000 Feet, by Accident/After video of the incident went viral, showing a face and body covered in ice, the local sporting authority said it had banned the paraglider from the sport for six months" (NYT).

26 comments:

Larry J said...: It has happened before, sometimes with fatal results. One of the most famous cases happened on Valentine's Day, 2007. Ewa Wisniersk was sucked into a storm and lifted to 32,000 feet. He Zhongpin, a 42-year-old Chinese paraglider, was found over 45 miles away from his launch site. He didn’t make it.

https://culturacolectiva.com/en/history/ewa-wisnierska-woman-survived-paragliding-huge-storm/; 5/30/25, 1:11 PM
Aggie said...: He's a lucky dude, but the government's overreaction is the real story. "You've made a flight to unauthorized heights, Comrade...." See, he failed to file a flight plan that included the remote possibility of freak weather.; 5/30/25, 1:17 PM
john mosby said...: Too bad this didn't happen to the Hamas guys. Could have been like the WKRP episode as their frozen asses hit the ground: "By Allah, I thought terrorists could fly!"

JSM; 5/30/25, 1:27 PM
Steve Austin Showed Up For Work. said...: I'm assuming the usual skepticism about everything seen on the internet. I'm choosing to treat this claim as serious.

If someone without supplemental oxygen is suddenly transported to 28k feet, they will fall unconscious and die. Mountain climbers can climb that high without oxygen, but only about 1% of them and only after acclimatization. Even people using oxygen have to acclimatize. So, these facts seem to point to a fake. However...

In the 21st century, you can buy a pressure tent to sleep in and acclimatize at home. This is what most people in the US who plan to climb 8,000 meter peaks do now. The tent removes oxygen and replaces it with N2, a little less O2 every night until you are sleeping at the equivalent of high altitude.

So, if this pilot is to be believed... he prepped for it, so it was intentional.

Or, he's lying. Either way, yeah, the local club is right to ban him.; 5/30/25, 1:27 PM
RideSpaceMountain said...: He Tu Hai (何吐海); 5/30/25, 1:31 PM
tim maguire said...: I don't want to see him coming down, I want to see him going up.; 5/30/25, 1:31 PM
Jaq said...: If I understand it correctly, if you are sucked too high in the sky in a storm, the lack of oxygen can cause you to hallucinate an entire movie starring your family and friends.. and munchkins!; 5/30/25, 1:31 PM
Leland said...: Disagree with Aggie. Dude was at 10,000 feet MSL and didn't notice IMC while doing a test flight to check equipment fit? I'd expect the FAA to ground him too. Aviators should check the weather conditions before attempting flight.

I think he was counting on the updraft of an approaching storm over the mountains and after fucking around, he found out.; 5/30/25, 1:31 PM
RCOCEAN II said...: So, Mr. Peng, what did you accomplish? Glad he's safe, but these sort of go up, fly around, and then come down, activities seem pointless to me.; 5/30/25, 1:32 PM
RCOCEAN II said...: Does Mr. Peng go Pong when he lands?; 5/30/25, 1:33 PM
Iman said...: Ho Lee Fuk!; 5/30/25, 1:49 PM
Iman said...: Wei Tu Hai; 5/30/25, 1:51 PM
Iman said...: Sum Ting Wong; 5/30/25, 1:51 PM
Iman said...: Fortune Cookie: “You will be taking calculated risks, focusing on steady progress, and reaching new heights.”; 5/30/25, 1:59 PM
Iman said...: …and freezing your jiaozis off…”; 5/30/25, 2:01 PM
Rocco said...: Jaq said...
“If I understand it correctly, if you are sucked too high in the sky in a storm, the lack of oxygen can cause you to hallucinate an entire movie starring your family and friends.. and munchkins!”

And your little dog, too!; 5/30/25, 2:25 PM
Rocco said...: RCOCEAN II said...
“Does Mr. Peng go Pong when he lands?”

I go back and forth on that.; 5/30/25, 2:54 PM
EAB said...: Sounds like “Crash Landing on You” - a great K-drama in which a wealthy, young South Korean woman does a paragliding stunt for marketing purposes. Storm hits, she’s lifted high aloft and over to crash land in North Korea, where she hides from authorities in a small village.; 5/30/25, 3:17 PM
Aggie said...: @Leland - he took off at 10,000 ft elevation to practice maneuvering close to the ground in thin air, trying out newly purchased equipment as far as I can tell. Another flier that day was sucked into the same conditions and didn't survive them.; 5/30/25, 3:48 PM
Josephbleau said...: “he took off at 10,000 ft elevation to practice maneuvering close to the ground in thin air“

As the pilots say, it’s not the average elevation that kills you.; 5/30/25, 4:42 PM
Mary Beth said...: EAB said...

Sounds like “Crash Landing on You”

But this Chinese "remake" doesn't have Hyun Bin, so what's even the point?; 5/30/25, 4:48 PM
Yinzer said...: So no one is wondering why he had a camera placed, apparently somewhere on his flight equipment, that well could have documented his demise?; 5/30/25, 5:01 PM
WK said...: Wow. They have a “local sporting authority” that can ban him from flying. That didn’t stop the lawn chair balloon man in America!; 5/30/25, 9:22 PM
John Scott said...: There a saying in the soaring community...Happiness is at cloud base. Clouds mark lift so they are sought out. Get under a "street" of cumulus clouds and you can fly miles without turning a single circle. However, if conditions are too unstable then you get areas of overdevelopment. To be avoided for sure, but sometimes things change so rapidly that you find yourself having to race to blue skies in order avoid getting sucked up into the clouds. I flew hang gliders for over 30 years and I'm sorry to say, that on one or two occasions I was not successful. But you have a better chance of avoiding cloud suck on a hang glider than a paraglider. I can pull the control bar to my knees to race away. Paragliders have a mechanism to fly faster, but there is no comparison.

I haven't read anything about this incident, but because the launch is already fairly high at 10,000ft there is chance that pilots flying from there fly with oxygen. Regarding having a camera: many pilots fly with GoPros. I had one when I got caught in the clouds (YouTube John Scott Deployment Flight)
In my case I ended up throwing my reserve parachute, because I felt I was no longer piloting the glider. I came down under canopy from about 16,000 ft.; 5/30/25, 10:20 PM
mikee said...: Rip tides of the air, up instead of away from shore. Which I suppose is indeed away from shore, when up in the air.; 5/30/25, 11:14 PM
Oso Negro said...: First he experienced “cloud suck”, then he experienced“commies suck.” But as the late, great Tom Petty sang “learning to fly, but I ain’t got wings. Coming down is the hardest thing”; 5/30/25, 11:25 PM