A REPORT into the death of a much-loved man in a paragliding tragedy in Bradford has been released. 

Cleckheaton father-of-three Shawn Crossfield, known as Eddie, was out flying a paramotor - a powered paraglider - with two friends when he crashed on New Church Farm in Tong Lane on the evening of August 9, 2022.

In a Prevention of Future Deaths Report, Assistant Coroner Angela Brocklehurst highlighted that before flying, Mr Crossfield had "repaired both propeller blades on his aircraft himself".

She added that during his flight the "left-hand control line came into contact with an uneven repaired section of the propeller".

When the propeller turned under power this caused the line to be "entrapped and partially severed".
 
Mrs Brocklehurst said: "The tension upon the control line instigated a rapid and dynamic turn leading to a spiral dive from which the deceased was unable to recover before impacting upon the ground."

In the report, she raised concerns that there is "no regulatory authority available to control the quality or airworthiness of the class BGD Luna 2 Paraglider flown by the deceased".

She added: "The absence of such quality control and licensing for use and registration of such aircraft does provide the opportunity for future deaths to occur.
 
"Had a mandatory inspection and certification of fitness been carried out and imposed by qualified inspectors, in all likelihood such a death as suffered by the deceased may not have occurred."

Reacting to the report, Mr Crossfield's sister Sandra Colbeck said: "I hope it sheds some awareness for people who don’t fully understand what could happen.

She added: "As much as he was experienced (Mr Crossfield had been paragliding for 12 years), it still happened.

"For someone who didn’t know these things, it is even more important that they get the training.

"The more that can be done for awareness and the levels of teaching and understanding before anyone goes up there the better."

18 months on from the tragic event, the family are still struggling to come to terms with what happened.

Mrs Colbeck added: "He (her father Dereck Crossfield) has to do a lot of things on his own now because my brother is not there.

"As a family, we are pulling together and we talk about him a lot.

"He did not know how popular he was. His memory really does live on."

The Telegraph & Argus approached BGD for a comment.