Paraglider Cheats Death, Saves Own Life One Second Before Impact In Terrifying Video

Paraglider Kevin Philipp is lucky to be alive after his glider lines became badly entangled while plummeting to the ground -- before literally getting his rescue parachute open about one second before impact!

And, the entire death-defying ordeal was caught on video.

Philipp shared the terrifying clip Monday ... showing him paragliding thousands of feet in the air when suddenly his lines become tangled. Badly tangled.

KP -- who's an aerobatic paraglider (think crazy stunts under a large glider) -- desperately tried to straighten out the lines, but the attempt was futile.

It appears Philipp attempted to deploy his reserve chute, but that wouldn't open, either.

Then, about a second before the would-be impact, Kevin ripped the bag containing the rescue chute, which then opened ... in all likelihood, saving his life, and at the very least, averting serious injury.

"Oh my God!" Philipp yells after landing (hard) into a small tree.

Philipp posted the video on YouTube, explaining "strong turbulence" caused the lines to tangle.

As for how close he was to disaster, Kevin wrote ... "The falling speed increased a lot due to the twisting wing. Very last chance was to manually open the rescue package. Estimated time left about 1 second This was not the day to die!"

Despite the close call, Philipp says incidents like this are uncommon.