Peter wrote:
the instructor will be lucky to not be on the receiving end of a personal injury lawsuit
In Switzerland, awards that go beyond recovering actual, quantified damages such as medical expenses or proven loss of earning, are quite low, I would guess 1-2,000 francs, certainly less than 5.
Peter wrote:
probably not since most blokes getting the airport check get touched up by another bloke
I personally don’t feel a difference being passed by women or men (being a heterosexual man), so not sure that homosexual men would get great pleasure being padded at security either 
Peter wrote:
Looking at it from the other angle, and I am not suggesting this is what should happen, the instructor will be lucky to not be on the receiving end of a personal injury lawsuit.
I don’t know. This looks like gross negligence by the instructor/pilot to me, and anyone on the police side of things can press criminal charges. It’s all out there on YouTube, and with personal injury as a result, the police may even be forced to investigate by law (this doesn’t mean forced to press charges though). The pilot did well landing the hang glider, but it was pure luck the passenger happened to be strong enough to hold on until he did. A civil lawsuit will surely follow a criminal lawsuit in cases like this.
Isn’t “pressing charges” a purely American concept?
Peter wrote:
pressing charges
English – American. Isn’t that a tomato tomaato kind of thing?
Cobalt wrote:
Won’t these metal plates be removed after some time?
Finally some topic I have expertise in 
The kind of plate implanted in this case can remain in the body indefinitely without causing any harm.
Some patients want to have them removed for psychological reasons or because they feel irritated by the metal under their skin. This is possible after approximately 4 – 8 months if the bone has healed correctly.
All patients with such implanted receive a medical implant pass which can be used e.g. at airports to explain the undetected metal. I’m not even sure if the scanners to always find the mostly titanium made plates though…
English – American
No such thing in England. The police decide (well, sort of).
I think the instructor did a fine job other than forgetting to ensure his passenger was clipped in. You typically can’t abort take-offs in hang gliders. You can’t add power, do a circuit and land on top. Landing down a slope generally ends in failure and landing up a slope generally ends in a heavy crash. Most of the clear areas visible in the early stage of the video were on significant slopes, I think. You can’t sideslip to lose height, and S-turns would have flung the passenger off. Faster flying is bumpier flying… In his position I would have tried to keep things smooth, and landed where he did.
Is it inexcusable to take off without attaching your passenger? Maybe, but a hang-glider passenger is more involved in the flying than a light aircraft passenger would be so the take-off time will be quite busy and I can see how it happens so often. Hard to keep a ‘sterile cockpit’ and run through the checklists when your passenger is so involved in the flight.
An awful lot of people have metalwork in their bodies and airports would grind to a halt if they let it trouble them. You’d be hard pushed to implant a large weapon in somebody’s wrist (if it was a knife, how would you get it out; if a bomb, you could plant a much bigger one in their abdomen).
To me, there’s a difference between a student hang-glider, who’s chosen to take up the activity, and a tourist who’s opted to have a hang-glider experience. The latter should be much more intensely cared for.
You’re right, but there’s a limit to how safe it can be made and most of the mistakes we make are stupid when viewed with the retrospectoscope.
I trust we all warn our passengers that flying is about as dangerous as motorcycling?
