Bar Shaker
A quick look at the AAIB reports and microlight accidents summary shows it to be a remarkably safe way to go flying. Although a couple of high profile, tragic accidents seem to have exposed one or two loopholes whereby maintenance procedures have fallen between the cracks ?
What is remarkable is that such a young sport has learned fast from the real pioneering days and has remained clear of over regulation, so far, with no significant detriment to overall flight safety ?
I suppose it is difficult to balance the attraction of "simple" microlighting in what used to be very basic machines to the operation and maintenance demands of rather more hi tech microlights now available on the market ?
I hope the two injured flyers are recovering well. It seems that the very experienced instructor had very little control over the machine and they were both (relatively) lucky that the failure occurred where and when it did. As for the cables themselves, I would have thought that making up such cables locally would have been a straightforward procedure for any reasonably qualified person ? I do note the caveat regarding "factory supplied" items though and would tend to think that this action was more for convenience than any minimal cost saving aim ?