On Monday night 9/21/2020 at 7:43pm multiple Fire, Police and EMS units were dispatched to the 200blk of Reeceville Rd for a possible paraglider who came down in the wooded area between Brandywine Hospital and Freedom Village.

The initial report given to first responding units was that a paraglider that appeared to be coming in for a landing was too low and almost struck the chimney of the Huston Building before going into a heavily wooded and swampy area and calls for help were heard. Thorndale Fire Company and Police from the area initially began to check the wooded area and it was quickly determined that extra resources would be needed. Wagontown and East Brandywine Fire Companies along with EMS from Coatesville and Westwood were dispatched to assist.

Boat 35, Traffic 35, Tac 35 and ATV 35 along with Chief and Safety 35 all made the response and initially were sent to the Freedom Village side to begin searching from that side of the wooded area. ATV 35, ATV 49 and ATV 38 along with multiple firefighters from all the agencies on scene spent over an hour in the thick wooded area searching and were unable to find any sign of the paraglider. A helicopter from Philadelphia Police was also on scene assisting with their FLIR (forward looking infrared) and Spotlight. At that time all crews came out of the woods and re-assembled at the Huston Center while the helicopter continued to circle the area.

Boat 35 was also launched later in the incident to check a pond that was in the woods right off the access road to the Houston center and again crews were unable to locate any sign of the paraglider.

Comm1 from Chester County 911 Center, Chester County High Angle Rescue Team, Chester County Incident Support Team and the Sherriff's K-9 unit were all now also on scene. Command came up with a plan to send a large group back into the woods a few feet apart in a straight line stretching from the south end of the woods to the north and they would search in a western pattern walking towards Reeceville Rd. Once again crews were in the woods for over an hour and were unable to find any signs of the paraglider.

Command made the decision to suspend the search operations until later in the morning where daylight would assist with the search, however around 05:30 the subject who actually landed safely called into the police and advised he was ok and left just prior to units arriving onscene.

Approx. 150 volunteers from numerous agencies were on scene throughout the incident and crews worked extremely well together and we had a good outcome.

Photos from Irisheyez Photography, Chesco Fire Rescue Photography and members onscene.