A 55-year-old Chinese paraglider who got sucked into a deadly vortex in northwestern China and lived to tell the tale has been penalized by local authorities (“Disbelief as Chinese paraglider sucked into freezing, high altitude vortex is punished,” South China Morning Post, May 29, 2025).
“I had just bought a second-hand paragliding harness and wanted to test it, so I was conducting ground parachute shaking,” he told an interviewer in Chinese. “After a while, the wind suddenly picked up and lifted me into the air. I tried to land as soon as possible, but I failed. I found myself surrounded by cumulonimbus clouds and trapped inside. It was terrifying—everything around me was white. Without the compass, I wouldn’t have known which direction I was heading. I thought I was flying straight, but in reality, I was spinning. Eventually, I managed to fly out toward the northeast.”
The vortex carried Peng Yujiang more than five miles above sea level. As video of the mishap shows, he got pretty frosty. The temperature at that height is estimated to be about 40 degrees Celsius below zero. He’s recovering, but is still frostbitten.
Online observers have been stunned by the incident, especially after learning that Peng only had four and a half years of paragliding experience….
They were also shocked to learn that the local authorities had decided to punish Peng, banning him from flying for six months and asking him to submit a report.
The Gansu Provincial Aviation Sports Association published their decision on May 28.
They also banned Peng’s flying companion Gu Zhimin from flying for six months for “publishing the video without permission and causing bad influence”.
Admirers of Peng’s courage and presence of mind don’t understand. “How is publishing videos of a personal experience something punishable?” Others support the authorities, saying that the punishments will make people think twice about, I guess, getting sucked into vortices. Don’t get sucked into vortices, kids.
It doesn’t make sense to punish Peng Yujiang for being in this accident or to punish Gu Zhimin for posting video of the dramatic incident. The outcome of releasing the video might have been predicted, though, as the irrationality of the powers that be in China is not really the shocker that some suppose. Peng’s escape from the deadly vortex would probably have been the end of the matter if the authorities hadn’t heard about it from social media.
As another observer commented: “He survived being sucked into a subzero cloud vortex but not the official investigation.”
