A former Scottish rugby union player has died in a paragliding accident in South Africa while he was there to watch his son play in the Under-20 World Championship, authorities said Tuesday.
Greig Oliver, who played for Scotland from 1987 to 1992 and was a member of the coaching staff for Irish rugby union club Munster, was killed in the incident in Cape Town on Monday, Munster and the South African Rugby Union said. He was 58 years old.
Oliver’s son, Jack, is playing for the Ireland team in the tournament in South Africa and was on holiday with his wife, Fiona.
South Africa’s National Maritime Rescue Institute said Oliver was in a two-seater paraglider with a pilot when they collided mid-air with another two-seater paraglider just off the coast in the Sea Point area of Cape Town.
UNDERGROUND MOVEMENT DETECTED AT SOUTH AFRICAN MINE A MONTH AFTER A GAS EXPLOSION SHUT DOWN THE SITE
The former Scotland rugby player died in a paragliding accident on Monday while in South Africa to watch his son at the Under-20 World Championship. (FoxNews)
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Oliver and the pilot landed in the sea between 200 and 300 meters out to sea. The pilot suffered minor injuries, but Oliver was discovered on rocks in the sea and entangled in paragliding gear, rescuers said. The rescue team performed CPR on him, but he was pronounced dead, the maritime rescue institute said.
The two people from the other paraglider were unharmed.
The South African Rugby Union said it «will do everything in its power to help the Oliver family cope with this dire situation.»
Oliver only played a handful of games for Scotland, but he did appear in two Rugby World Cups, in 1987 and 1991.