Runaway powered chute

I admit not to keeping up with Tracy news recently, so I stumbled upon the thread in Backcountry Pilot in November. Fortunately the ever dependable Tracy Press had a blurb:

According to the Federal Aviation Administration’s Ian Gregor, a powered parachute that took to the skies from outside Tracy without its pilot Saturday, Aug. 14, was found a week later hanging in a tree in a remote part of Napa County.

“The plane headed northwest then circled around for about a half hour before flying southeast toward Yosemite,” Gregor stated in an e-mail.

The probability of injury was very small once it cleared populated areas, and even then it was small. Still, talk about the improper hand-start technique.