Ewa Wiśnierska,

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Cieślewicz (born 23 December 1971,

Nysa Nysa may refer to: Greek Mythology * Nysa (mythology) or Nyseion, the mountainous region or mount (various traditional locations), where nymphs raised the young god Dionysus * Nysiads, nymphs of Mount Nysa who cared for and taught the infant ...

, Poland), is a German

paraglider Paragliding is the recreational and competitive adventure sport of flying paragliders: lightweight, free-flying, foot-launched glider aircraft with no rigid primary structure. The pilot sits in a harness or lies supine in a cocoon-like 'po ...

, a member of the German national paragliding team, who won the

Paragliding World Cup The Paragliding World Cup (or PWC for short) is a cross country flying competition for paraglider Paragliding is the recreational and competitive adventure sport of flying paragliders: lightweight, free-flying, foot-launched glider aircra ...

on several occasions. She is mostly known for having survived extreme cold,

lightning Lightning is a naturally occurring electrostatic discharge during which two electric charge, electrically charged regions, both in the atmosphere or with one on the land, ground, temporarily neutralize themselves, causing the instantaneous ...

and lack of

oxygen Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the periodic table, a highly reactive nonmetal, and an oxidizing agent that readily forms oxides with most elements as wel ...

during an ascent to almost inside a

cumulonimbus cloud Cumulonimbus (from Latin ''cumulus'', "heaped" and ''nimbus'', "rainstorm") is a dense, towering vertical cloud, typically forming from water vapor condensing in the lower troposphere that builds upward carried by powerful buoyant air currents. ...

. Wiśnierska lives in

Aschau im Chiemgau Aschau im Chiemgau is a municipality and a village in the district of Rosenheim in Bavaria in Germany. Transport Aschau im Chiemgau station is on the Chiemgau Railway. Personalities * Hans Clarin (1929-2005), actor and synchronist * Locati ...

, Bavaria, where she teaches paragliding and runs a company which offers courses in personal development.

Accident

On 14 February 2007, in spite of weather reports heralding the presence of violent thunderstorms, Wiśnierska decided to try to fly in order to train for the 2007

World Paragliding Championships World Paragliding Championships is the main competitive paragliding championships in the World, organized by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. Cross Country Paragliding Paragliding Accuracy References Medalists

near

Manilla, New South Wales Manilla is a small town in New South Wales, Australia, located on Fossickers Way 45 kilometres northwest of the regional city of Tamworth and 27 kilometres northeast of the historic village Somerton. Manilla is famous for its setting as a fis ...

, Australia. She was sucked into the ascending current of a cumulonimbus cloud, a cloud responsible for large and heavy rains, usually with hail inside and extremely low temperatures. Unable to get out, she was lifted to an altitude of , according to her

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a Radionavigation-satellite service, satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of t ...

. The GPS variometer also tracked vertical speeds of up to +20 m/s (). She landed 3.5 hours later about north of her starting position. In the same weather event, the Chinese paraglider He Zhongpin was killed by a lightning strike, at 42 years old.

Film

In 2010,

ABC1 ABC TV, formerly known as ABC1, is an Australian national public television network. It is owned and operated by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and is the flagship ABC Television network. The headquarters of the ABC TV channel an ...

and

France 5 France 5 () is a French free-to-air public television channel, part of the France Télévisions group. Principally featuring educational programming, the channel's motto is ''la chaîne de la connaissance et du savoir'' (the knowledge network). ...

made the

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

''Miracle in the Storm'' about her story.
''Miracle in the Storm''
ABC1, summary The film was nominated as Most Outstanding Factual Program for the

Logie Awards of 2011 The 53rd Annual TV Week Logie Awards was held on Sunday 1 May 2011 at the Crown Palladium in Melbourne, and broadcast on the Nine Network. The ceremony was hosted by Shane Bourne, while the red carpet arrivals was hosted by Shelley Craft, Livinia ...

and won the category Best Cinematography in a Documentary at the

2010 Australian Film Institute Awards The 2010 Australian Film Institute Awards ceremony, presented by the Australian Film Institute (AFI), honoured the best Australian films of 2010 and took place on 11 December 2010 at the Regent Theatre, in Melbourne, Victoria. The Australian ...

References

1971 births People from Nysa, Poland Living people Paraglider pilots German sportswomen Polish emigrants to Germany {{Germany-sport-bio-stub

Accident

Film

See also

References