A hang glider pilot is lucky to be alive after losing control of the craft thousands of feet in the air.

Thursday afternoon, VSAR received a request from the provincial Emergency Co-ordination Centre to assist in the search and rescue of a hang glider pilot in mountainous terrain south of Vernon.

Initial reports indicated the pilot had crashed and was caught in trees, with undetermined injuries. Ground teams were deployed into the King Edward Lake Forest Service Road area, where they met up with friends of the pilot, RCMP and ambulance crews.

Crews then located the pilot, who had undetermined injuries.

The VSAR heli-winch team, aboard Air Rescue One from Wildcat Helicopters in Kelowna, was also dispatched, and once they located the subject from the air he was extracted from the forested hillside and delivered to the ambulance waiting nearby.

Once stabilized, the Air Ambulance Helicopter crew took the subject directly to the Kelowna General Hospital for further treatment of non-life-threatening injuries.

VSAR officials said the pilot encountered severe control issues at an altitude of approximately 5,000 feet and was fortunate to survive an uncontrolled spin and crash into a heavily wooded area on the mountainside.