Woman plunges to her death from zip line in front of horrified family

A woman has tragically plummeted to her death in front of horrified family after slipping out of her safety harness as she ziplined.

Georgie English - The Sun

3 min read

May 7, 2024 - 10:50AM

Wednesday, May 22 | Top stories | From the Newsroom

A woman has tragically plummeted 18m to her death after slipping out of her safety harness as she ziplined in front of her horrified family.

According toThe Sun, the terrifying accident saw Ghizlane Moutahir, 41, fall to her death on the 96 km/h zip line after witnesses say they saw her begin to “struggle” with the harness mid-air.

The fatal equipment error saw Ghizlane plunge down into Italy’s Bitto Valley on Sunday afternoon.

Police say she died instantly upon impact.

Her two nieces, who were with the 41-year-old at the time of the accident, filmed the entire ordeal after completing the zip line course at the Fly Emotion park in Alpi Orobie at Bema.

Ghizlane was coming to the end of the mile-long journey when those watching on started to notice something was badly going wrong, say Corriere della Sera.

Horrified onlookers said Ghizlane stopped on the line suddenly before she dropped

Witnesses say she stopped on the steel cable and was suspended in the air for several seconds as she is believed to have started to panic.

A police spokesperson said she was then likely to have “began to struggle” when realising she had stopped as her “feet slipped” off the safety mechanism below her.

He continued: “This led to her becoming unbalanced and she fell from the harness around 20 metres into the forest below and was killed instantly.

“It’s also possible she had some sort of panic attack and that’s what made her struggle or maybe some other medical episode but we are waiting for the post-mortem results.”

Paramedics and firefighters quickly rushed to the bottom of the forest to try and save the woman.

Tragically, she was pronounced dead as soon as officials reached her.

An investigation has since been opened up into the fatal accident with officials examining the footage taken by the two girls.

Ghizlane Moutahir plunged 60ft to her death after witnesses say she slipped out of her safety harness while ziplining

The spokesperson also noted authorities will be carrying out thorough checks on the equipment used to see if a malfunction caused the ordeal.

The park was temporarily shut down moments after the death was first reported.

It is thought that hundreds of people were at Fly Emotion park when Ghizlane fell to her death.

The zip line takes thrillseekers across a deep valley between Albaredo and San Marco and Bema.

The section where Ghizlane fell from was just the first part of a much longer course she had taken her two nieces to on a sunny afternoon.

Ghizlane’s husband, Michele, stayed at home due to a toothache but was instantly at the park after hearing the tragic news.

Michele, who had been with his partner for almost a decade, told La Repubblica: “I should have been there with her too.

“I thought she had just hurt herself but now she’s no longer here.”

The zip line course where the horror ordeal unfolded in Italy

Matteo Sanguineti, a director of Fly Emotion, said: “Our first thoughts are with the lady and her family. We still don’t know for certain what happened.

“We are co-operating with the authorities to try and understand what happened.

“The zip line opened 13 years ago and in that time more than 200,000 people have used it and we have never had any incidents. I am shocked and incredulous.”

The official Fly emotion website has been temporarily closed down with just a statement being left up online.

It reads: “All activities are temporarily suspended. We apologise for any inconvenience.”

One person who previously rode on the zip line said: “I got chills when I read about what happened.

“The first time we did the Fly was in 2016 and my youngest was eight. The news really hit me … waiting to see what will come out of the investigation.”