So , paragliding is safe ?

A top British paraglider cheated death at 2,500ft — as she was savaged by eagles.

Terrified Nicky Moss, 38, fell prey to two of the giant birds as they repeatedly tried to claw her eyes out, then tore at her parachute-style canopy.

Screaming Nicky — hanging in a harness below the torn chute — plummeted out of control for 500ft before miraculously managing to land safely.

She said yesterday: “It was the stuff of nightmares. I thought I was dead meat. It was like being attacked by snarling flying black labradors.”

The wedge-tailed eagles, which boast an 8ft wingspan, swooped on Nicky, from Loughborough, Leics, as she took part in a contest in Australia.Nicky — the UK’s No 1 woman paraglider — said: “I was wearing a helmet and the only way I stopped my face being torn to shreds was by forcing my head down on to my chest. I was crying and screaming. The birds tore at my wing with their talons and I plummeted. One even got entangled in my paraglider lines and was shrieking and flapping like a possessed thing.”

The drama unfolded at the Killarney Paragliding Classic, an eight-day event 120 miles From Brisbane.

Nicky’s boyfriend Mark Graham, 43, a fellow paraglider, said: “It was horrendous.”

Ornithologist Dr John Bullard said the eagles would have mistaken the glider for a rival bird — with Nicky a tasty morsel in its talons. He said: “She was very lucky to escape unhurt.”