Hang glider survives harrowing unattached flight

Nov. 28 (UPI) -- A Florida man shared video of his nearly disastrous hang gliding experience in Switzerland, where he discovered after takeoff that he wasn't strapped in properly.

Chris Gursky said he was hang gliding for the very first time in Switzerland and he discovered right after takeoff that there was nothing holding him in place except his own arms.

Gursky, who posted video of the experience on YouTube, said he wasn't sure he was going to survive.

"I looked down once and I thought to myself, 'This is it. I'm going to fall to my death. I'm a goner,'" he told ABC's Good Morning America. "I didn't have much grip left in me at all. My hand was opening, I was slipping. I had his pant leg, that was about it."

He said it was about two minutes before the pilot was able to make a landing.

"While the pilot made a critical error in our pre-flight setup by not attaching me to the glider, he did all he could to get me down to the ground as quickly as possible, while grabbing on to my harness and flying with one hand," Gursky wrote.

Gursky, who suffered a broken wrist from the experience, said he would like to hang glide again, but this time with a proper harness.