ON Monday, 44-year-old hang-glider Lee Hockley became the latest hang-glider pilot to die in an accident over the Devil's Dyke.

Mr Hockley, from Benfleet, Essex, was killed when he plummeted to the ground after his glider collided with another piloted by Paul Evans, 29, from Sutton, Surrey.

As the British Hang-gliding and Paragliding Association launches an investigation on behalf of the Government, the issue of safety is once more to the fore.

JAMES MORRISON looks at the catalogue of accidents which has bedevilled the site, and how they might be prevented in future.

DEVIL'S Dyke is an ideal location for hang-gliding.

But despite its obvious natural advantages, the beauty spot has seen its fair share of accidents since gliding first became popular in the early 1970s.

Yesterday's death was just one of several hang-gliding tragedies to have hit the Dyke over the past 20 years.

The most recent incident happened when, in November 1996, Francis Forsyth-Yorke of Horning, Norfolk, dived 100ft to the ground after colliding with a paraglider.

An inquest later heard that the 27-year-old banker may have been momentarily blinded by the sun before the fatal clash.

Two years on, the survivor, fireman Jeff McCall, 37, of Hornchurch, Essex, is still unclear exactly how the crash took place.

He said: "One of the most difficult things for me to come to terms with was that, after the accident, I walked away fairly unscathed, but unfortunately the other guy died.

"Before it happened, I was always a big sceptic about things like post-traumatic stress, so initially I tried to put up a front and carry on as normal, as if nothing had happened."

In the end, Jeff was forced to face up to the shock he had been suppressing, and see a counsellor.

He said: "It completely changed my outlook. Until something like that happens, you think of the future as infinite, but now I'm more keen to get on and do something than not do it, so it's probably made me a little less tolerant and more impatient."

Not all hang-glider deaths are caused by mid-air collisions.

In 1978, a man died after crashing on a thin strip of land by the car park at the Devil's Dyke Hotel.

Eight years later, in June 1986, the same happened to graphic designer Tony Payne from Tooting, London.

Witness Ron Steadman, of Redhill in Surrey, watched as 43-year-old Mr Payne's glider plunged 200ft to the ground after trying to land unsuccessfully three times.

And in a cruel twist of fate, Mr Steadman himself was the victim of a fatal accident less than a year later, when he collided with a radio-controlled model aeroplane.

Within weeks, the Southern Hang-gliding Club voted to create a special "exclusion zone" to keep hang-gliders away from model plane fliers.

Members agreed not to fly below 250ft in the North Bowl area of the Dyke - a rule which has been adhered to ever since.

But despite such measures, the number of accidents each year has increased, leading to calls for tougher restrictions.

The National Trust, which bought much of the dyke three years ago, is currently consulting hang-gliding clubs in a bid to work out a new safety strategy.

Spokesman Glynn Jones says: "Safety of hang-gliders is an issue we are concerned about. It's physically impossible for us to stop people hang-gliding, so we will have to work with the clubs."

He adds that one idea might be to limit the number of people using the site for gliding at any one time.

The formal introduction of third party liability for gliders in the event of accidents was also being discussed.

Former hang-gliding instructor Russ Crowley does not want yesterday's accident to provoke the introduction of 'knee-jerk' restrictions.

Mr Crowley, 38, from Orpington in Kent, who witnessed friend Ron Steadman's death a decade ago, says: "You have to use your discretion when flying, and problems arise when, as on the South Downs, you've got a crowded air space.

"But I don't want to see any silly rules being picked up on, because if you start banning things, where will you stop? You might as well just sit at home and lead a boring life.

"I've flown up there for more than 15 years, and I've never had an accident. There are far more people hurt on motorbikes than through hang-gliding."

Not all accidents involving hang-gliders at the Devil's Dyke have proved fatal.

But though most have been fortunate enough to avoid death, on numerous occasions casualties have been left permanently scarred by accidents.

In 1993 Victoria Jones, from Bexhill, suffered severe spinal injuries after falling more than 200ft in the dyke when her canopy suddenly deflated in mid-flight.

Similar fates befell Peter Jones, of Deptford, in March 1994, and Tony Hobden, of Fonthill Road, Hove, in 1996.

And the Devil's Dyke isn't the only place in Sussex to have seen its fair share of glider mishaps.

In May 1992, 37-year-old Clifford Pummell of Orpington, died of internal injuries after crashing into a hill at Alciston, near Seaford.

Marc Asquith is spokesman for the 8,000-strong British Hang-gliding and Paragliding Association, which is investigating yesterday's tragedy.

He says: "Devil's Dyke has no more and no fewer accidents than any other site, and is no more unsafe either.

"Because of the increase in the popularity of hang-gliding and paragliding, there has been some rise in the number of accidents associated with them, but usually pilots will be carrying emergency parachutes.

"These can change a life-threatening situation into a chance of survival, and they only usually cause problems if they're opened when pilots are already too close to the ground."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.