New Bachelorette contestant Eric Hill died following paragliding accident
Eric Hill, a contender on Andi Dorfman’s upcoming season of The Bachelorette passed away following a paragliding accident.
According to Utah’s KUTV, the 32-year-old was paragliding with friends in a designated area on Sunday afternoon when his parachute collapsed. He crashed into the nearby mountainside before falling to the ground, 15 to 20 feet below. He was wearing a helmet, but was still knocked unconscious.
“It doesn’t seem like he fell an extremely long distance, but the velocity that he went into the hillside was enough to cause some trauma,” said Unified Fire Authority Battalion Chief Brian Anderton.
The United Fire Authority had to use a technical crews to scale 150-200 feet up the mountain and then use ropes to carefully get him down. Eric was transported by medical helicopter to a nearby hospital and was still listed in critical condition when the KUTV story was updated this morning. Based on social media posts by friends, he suffered severe head trauma and other critical bodily injuries.
A friend who witnessed the accident said Eric is an experienced paraglider.
“He knows what he’s doing. Just kind of that time of year,” said Derek Mazur of difficult wind conditions in the spring. “The air is really rough and a lot of turbulence.”
Reality Steve, the authority on all things Bachelorette, Eric earned the first one-on-one date with Andi. He was later eliminated and wasn’t doing anything related to the show at the time of the accident.
Still, a production source noted to E! Online that the accident presents a challenge to producers.
“This is really the first time something terrible has happened between time of filming and airing the season,” the insider said. “So the network will have to figure out how to handle, and if it merits somehow editing show differently.”
Beyond appearing on The Bachelorette, Eric is a humanitarian who was on a mission to visit all 195 countries recognized by the United Nations in record time. He was documenting his journey on The Global Odessey.
Our thoughts go out to him and his family.
