Heart-stopping moment a paraglider slips through harness and clings onto instructor during a ride over a cliff at holiday hotspot in Turkey

This is the heart-stopping moment a paraglider slipped through his harness and clung onto his instructor as they soared off a cliff at a holiday hotspot in Turkey.

Footage shows the pair taking off from a scenic hillside location on Turkey’s Black Sea Coast. 

The trouble starts immediately after they leave the ground, with the paraglider making desperate hand movements as the flying machine sways from side to side.

Spectators on the hillside can be heard expressing their concern as the instructor carefully swings back around before apparently coming in to land.

Video shows the emergency services and event organisers huddled around the pair on the grass as a woman walks off sobbing.

The trouble starts immediately after they leave the ground, with the paraglider making desperate hand movements as the flying machine sways from side to side

Turkish media reported that the passenger, who has not been named, suffered minor abrasions but was otherwise unharmed. 

The incident took place at the 5th International Kapikaya Nature Sports Festival, in the Bafra district of Samsun province in the north-central part of the country.

Turkey attracts paragliding enthusiasts from all over the world, with Oludeniz, Babadag mountain, and Pamukkale among the favoured locations.

In April, a British man was arrested in Turkey after a fatal mid-air collision with another paraglider.

Thomas Aitken, 45, is said to have been detained by police after 30-year-old Orkut Baysal died following their mid-air disaster.

The horror crash amid windy conditions happened in Turkey’s Fethiye district, in the province of Mugla.

Baysal, who was in the Turkish national paragliding team, had jumped from 1,700m above sea level – more than a mile – when the disaster struck, local reports said.

He had jumped with fellow Turkish national paraglider Andac Ünsal, 45, as part of a tandem flight at the same time that Aitken was carrying out a solo jump.

Footage shows the paraglider taking off with a passenger from a scenic hillside location on Turkey’s Black Sea Coast. After a brief dance with death, the paraglider carefully swings back around before apparently coming in to land

Video shows the emergency services and event organisers huddled around the pair on the grass as a woman walks off sobbing

During the professional paragliders’ descent, Baysal and Aitken collided, with both men plummeting onto a hotel roof before landing on the edge of the resort’s swimming pool.

Some reports in Turkish media say that the two parachutes became entangled in the collision, just 65ft (around 20m) off the ground.

Local police and medics were sent to the crash site and the injured paragliders were taken to the Fethiye State Hospital for treatment.

But Baysal died from multiple injuries inflicted by the mid-air disaster. 

Both Aitken and Ünsal were reportedly hurt, but not with life-threatening injuries.