Screengrab via YouTube / Gursk3
Imagine if the worst, most terrifying moment of your life was captured on camera. That's what happened to YouTuber Gursk3, who posted a video of himself on Monday hang gliding for the very first time. The problem? His harness, the only thing keeping him secure during his gravity-defying trip, was completely unattached to the aircraft.The opening seconds of the gut-wrenching video show a pilot and the man preparing to launch the glider—but unbeknownst to him, the guy's harness is hanging uselessly off his back. Right after takeoff, the pilot realizes he made a potentially deadly mistake and attempts to steer the glider to the ground for a quick landing. The lopsided weight of the passenger hanging precariously by the strength of his fingers makes the thing hard to steer, so they're forced to soar well above the treetops and then off of a fucking cliff. Gulp.Thanks to the pilot's efforts, they both survived, but the passenger had to be rushed to the hospital. According to Gizmodo, he fractured his wrist when he tumbled off of the hang glider during the landing, and tore a tendon in his left bicep from holding on to a metal bar and supporting his full body weight for a terrifying 134 seconds. All this on his first day of vacation in Switzerland."It's better than the alternative," he quips in the video, which is, you know, an admirable way to look at this whole nightmare.Follow Beckett Mufson on Twitter and Instagram.Sign up for our newsletter to get the best of VICE delivered to your inbox daily.