While the original article could come under the ‘Fake News’ heading, there are still some good learning points to take in. The following is from UK Airsports, and refers to the original posting about Aluminium Carabiners:

This is part of an OPINION piece from a French club loosely based on an official FFVL investigation, cherry picking info to back their opinion without reference to the conclusions of the FFVL.
There has been a lot of misinformation, speculation and debate on forums about it.
Carlo wrote a answer to Andy Wallis on the Derbyshire Club Facebook Page which I agree with and will quote.
As Carlo posted:
this "Avis de navigabilite" (which translates into "Opinion of navigability) document published by 'Les Toiles du Sud' (which seems to be a freeflight club in southern France) appears to be just that i.e. just someone's opinion, not an official safety notice based on thorough investigation, imho.
This doc appears to be a rehash of the real safety notice published by the FFVL (Federation Francaise de Vol Libre, the French equivalent of the UK's BHPA) in Dec 2018, following FFVL investigation, but with the FFVL's conclusions removed. For example, they do not conclude that pilots should not use alu karabiners, or that these failures are down to design or production flaws in the karabiners.
The main conclusions of this FFVL investigation were:

Never use karabiners designed for solo use for tandem use;

Check/verify your equipment (and inspect it regularly);

Do not use alu karabiners for more than 5 years or 500 hours maximum, whichever comes first, from first use;

Alu karabiners which are older than 5 years, have more than 500 hours use, or are not in good condition should be removed from circulation;

Pilots should ensure that their karabiners are neither too old nor over-used nor in poor condition;

Do not connect reserves with alu karabiners;

Pilots to circulate this info.
There is also some mention of alternatives (soft links, pin lock, steel karabiners, maillions) and their pros and cons.
Link to the original FFVL safety notice (PDF, 391 KB) http://bit.ly/39C4R34

The original document is in French and can be viewed here

In 2018, it was reported that 3 accidents were caused by the rupture of the carabiners on solo and tandem paragliders.
It is proven that one of the accidents concerns a Camp-40mm carabiner distributed under the brand name Woody Valley.

This carabiner had about 3 years and 600 hours of cross-country and thermal flight and was used in solo paragliding.

After analysis of available public documents, products derived from the Camp 40 carabiner (Gin 40 ,Niviuk 40; APCO-AirExtreme 40; Kortel 40) would also be affected by a risk of rupture towards end-of-life or tandem use.
For safety reasons, users are advised not to use this equipment anymore.

A collection of this material is set up with the aim of carrying out tests of residuelle resistance and the results of which will be published.

You can send your reform connectors, under envelope "bubble strengthens" accompanied by this fact sheet information a:

Use Exceptional Email

Gudauri_Georgia paragliding accident - 2018

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZKq-e0mOms&feature=voutu.be&t=441

Pay Attention! More on changing winds

It’s been a very weird winter, wind-wise. Apart from the weather being consistently abysmal, even the breaks have had their issues with wind gradient and shear. Flyable winds at ground level have regularly evolved into howling gales at hilltop height (or, even worse, just above the hill). Last Thursday our chairman and I set off for Tailbridge, passing clagged-in Parlick and Whitestones on the way. GJ had been in the air an hour when we arrived, and while he looked a bit stationary at times, all seemed fine. The wind was strong, but consistent, so I walked down to the bottom of the hill to re-attach my wing as I’d detached it from the harness to repack the reserve. After some ground handling the wind seemed to calm a bit more, so I wing-walked up a bit, and took off. Smooth air, consistent lift, good penetration – what more could I want? Better visibility would have been nice, but no need to be greedy. I had fun for half an hour, sharing the sky with a couple of hangies exploring the lift well out over the road. I started filming Simon as he and his mate flirted with the clouds swirling around between us and Mallerstang, thinking the light was great for some moody, atmospheric shots. This was nearly my undoing: I suddenly became aware of grass only a few feet beneath me, moving in the wrong direction! I barely had time to catch hold of the rear risers and get my feet out of the podbefore contacting the ground. It could have been much more serious – there are many worse places to get blown back than Tailbridge, with its flat grassy top, so apart from falling over while I was killing the wing, no harm done.

What did I do wrong? Failed to pay attention to the conditions. I was alone in the air, apart from the 2 hang gliders which were always in my view, so with reduced need to watch the airspace for other wings, my focus on catching ‘the shot’ distracted me from my main task, which was TO FLY THE B****Y AIRCRAFT! The wind was forecast to increase, and while Tailbridge isn’t noted for wave, clearly it was moving in and out of phase and I should have expected a marked change in windspeed at any time and stayed vigilant.

What could I have done? Had I noticed the speed picking up, I could have used my speed bar to push out and land by the road. By the time I realised what was happening, I was too near the ground for that to help, my priority was to prepare to land.

When I’ve landed in strong winds before, I’ve usually been relieved to find my backwards ground speed decrease to nothing, or even slightly forward, in the last few feet. Not this time, I actually accelerated backwards as I touched down so had no chance to stay on my feet, despite landing with bent knees and jumping round to run towards the wing. Could I have twisted 180° to face the way I was moving? This wasn’t the time to practise that!

So, in conclusion, this was a good reminder to me of the need to stay focused on the task of flying the glider. Everything else is peripheral – sightseeing, photography, even eating and drinking – all things we do but it’s vital develop the skill of keeping a significant part of our brains tuned in to the job in hand.

Anyway, here’s the shot: