Originally published on October 11, 2013
A 35-year-old Saudi tourist died in Penang, Malaysia, on Wednesday afternoon in a parasailing accident.
According to reports, the woman and her family checked into a beach-front hotel on Tuesday. The day after they went to a beach in Penang where they were approached by water sports operators.
The brother of the victim recalled in an interview how the operators were persuasive and insistent in promoting their water sports activities to him and his family when they were strolling along the beach-front at Batu Ferringhi.
"My sister relented to one of them by agreeing to try the parasailing and I felt uneasy about it," he said, adding that his father had paid RM200 for what was supposed to be a fun activity, the Malay Mail Online reported.
Once in the air, the woman somehow slipped out of the safety harness and plunged into the sea from a height of around 9 meters. According to reports, she is believed to have failed to wear the harness properly.
After falling into the sea, she was immediately rescued and pulled from the water by people at the beach, but efforts to resuscitate her failed.
She was pronounced dead on arrival at a local private hospital. The post-mortem is expected to be conducted today, the Malay Mail Online reported.
According to the Malay Mail Online, "Following the incident, the Penang Island Municipal Council ordered all water sports activities to be suspended until further notice.
"The police [...] questioned the boat operator involved and seized the boat, parachute and the parasailing equipment in the incident for further investigations."
A special committee will start an investigation to find out the cause of the accident.
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