KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Tourism, Culture and Environment Ministry has called for a review of the standard operating procedures for paragliding activities in the state.
Its minister, Datuk Christina Liew, said such measures were necessary following the significant number of accidents related to the activity.
"I was informed by the Sabah Tourism Board (STB) chief executive officer that there were four such incidents in Kokol (Manggatal) and three others in Lohan (Ranau) in the last three years," she said in a statement.
Among them, on Feb 14, 2022, two French men were involved in an accident during a group paragliding session near Mount Kinabalu, leaving one injured.
On July 22, 2022, a 35-year-old paraglider was stranded for 10 hours on top of a 30m-tall tree in Kokol.
In December 2022, a 26-year-old paraglider died when he crashed into a concrete wall by the roadside after losing control of his chute that caught a wind draft near Kokol here.
In January this year, a 40-year-old Korean paraglider was also stuck on a tree 50m in the air in Kokol.
The recent incident on April 22 involved a 64-year-old Chinese tourist, Xue Dong Yuan, in Lohan, Ranau.
Liew said that she has instructed STB to follow up on the case and determine what needs to be done.
"STB had also communicated with Flying Earth Travel Sdn Bhd for the tour operator to do the needful.
"The office of the consul-general of China and STB facilitated translation between the patient's family and Sabah ground handlers to discuss compensation for the patient's leg injury.
"The patient and her family member had arranged with their insurance company for their return journey back to Hebei province via Shanghai Airlines on April 30."