June 14--Away from the public spotlight on a San Francisco beach last week, a life was saved and heroes were made.
The drama started when the glider of a San Francisco fireman, identified as Mike Quinn, broke up in flight and plummeted 500 feet into the ocean breakers.
From a cliff top, Jason Bowen watched as the spectacle unfolded.
"The hang glider's leading tip cracked and collapsed and folded the front of the glider down in front of the pilot," Bowen said. "The whole contraption fell straight down into the ocean in about three seconds."
Bowen, an admissions specialist for San Francisco State University who lives nearby and often visits the beach, and other eyewitnesses called it "a miracle" that the hang glider landed in the surf zone.
"Another 20 feet farther out to sea and he drowns for sure," Bowen said. "Another 20 feet closer and he hits the beach from a 500-foot drop, probably dead."
Fort Funston, and along the San Francisco and Daly City coastline, is one of the best areas in California for hang gliding.
Strong winds out of the west sail across the water and hit the beachfront cliffs. The air is then thrust straight up to create a lifting force for just about anything with wings. That includes pelicans, gulls and hang gliders.
Fort Funston, with access off the Great Highway, has its own designated takeoff and landing area on a bluff top. With a nearby parking area, residents and out-of-towners alike will show up to watch the air ballet.
In recent years, with improvements in equipment, the sport has become far safer. The skills of many pilots, as well as training, also have been improved. Accidents have become rare but can be horrific and witnessed by many.
Such seemed the case in Wednesday's accident. The glider broke apart about 500 feet in the air, roughly 200 yards south of the horse stables, Bowen said.
The pilot, Quinn, survived the crash into the surf, and the breakers washed him into the tidal zone. Attempts to contact Quinn through the San Francisco Fire Department were unsuccessful.
Quinn struggled against the waves, still wrapped in his mummy bag and strapped to the collapsed glider, Bowen said. The biggest danger, it turned out, was drowning.
Bowen called 911, and dispatch sent five fire trucks full of guys with emergency rescue and paramedic training, but they arrived at the only place they could, the top of the cliffs, high above the beach where Quinn was fighting for his life.
As rescue crews made their way to the beach, a nearby fisherman, two beachcombers and another hang glider pilot, who flew down to the beach and landed, came to Quinn's aid first. They got him untangled, out of the water and on the beach before rescue teams took over.
A life was saved. "It was awesome," Bowen said.
"If not for the fisherman, the beachcombers and that fellow hang glider pilot, he might have drowned in the surf," Bowen said. "It is amazing he survived."
Wayward bear shot
In Monday's column, I wrote about the increased number of wayward bears showing up in strange places. A few hours after that story was published, a bear was reported in Seaside near Monterey. According to several reports, the bear scampered more than a mile through town and then, in an attempt to escape police, jumped fences into backyards in a populated area. Officers with the Department of Fish and Wildlife were on their way to dart the bear with a tranquilizer and transport it to Los Padres National Forest. Before they arrived, police shot and killed the bear.
Betrayal, death
One of the world's greatest events in nature is when giant leatherback sea turtles, often 80 years old and 6 feet long, arrive at the beach on the Caribbean near Limon, Costa Rica, to dig nests and lay their eggs. I have seen this event, and on one trip with a group from the Bay Area, we watched in horror as residents raided the turtle nests for the eggs. In one case, they killed a turtle that tried to protect its nest. In recent years, a group of conservationists from Costa Rica has tried to protect the nesting turtles. Last week, Jairo Mora Sandoval, a Costa Rican sea turtle activist on patrol with four foreign assistants, was kidnapped and found the next day beaten and fatally shot in the head. The other four escaped unharmed. Conservation groups have posted a $10,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of those responsible. www.seaturtles.org
Notes
Park scores: In the annual grading of the parks of the 50 largest U.S. cities, San Francisco ranked third and San Jose 11th, the Trust for Public Land reported.
Coast opens up: The fishing season for rockfish, cabezon and lingcod opened last weekend off the Bay Area coast, with legal fishing in water less than 180 feet deep, a 10-fish limit for rockfish, 2-fish limit for lingcod of 22-inch minimum size and 3-fish limit for cabezon of 15-inch minimum size. These regulations protect the slow-growing, long-lived species, which inhabit deepwater reefs.
Tagged trout: At Los Vaqueros Reservoir, 100 trout were tagged in May for all kinds of great prizes. With few redeemed so far, the program has been extended through next weekend.
Eyewitness: Chronicle field scout David Cruz was photographing birds last week at Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park when his attention was drawn to a commotion near the log cabin. "Two giant branches from an old Monterey pine snapped off and fell onto a truck and a minivan," Cruz said. We call those old limbs "widow makers" -- in this case, nobody was hurt, though two vehicles were crushed.
Bay Area Big Fish Club: 38-pound salmon caught south of the Farallon Islands by James Lapp on the Outer Limits out of Sausalito ... 20-pound catfish at Del Valle Reservoir by Daniel McDaniel ... 10-pound largemouth bass at San Pablo Reservoir by Kailani Tom (first reported by Western Outdoor News).
Tom Stienstra is The San Francisco Chronicle's outdoors writer. E-mail: [email protected] Twitter: @StienstraTom
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