Woman survives 11000 ft. plus fall.....

[Mamba]

S.African parachutist survives 3,500 metre plunge


JOHANNESBURG, Aug 23 (Reuters) - A South African skydiver survived a 3,500 metre (11,500 ft) plunge after her parachute failed to open and lines broke on her reserve chute, a local skydiving club said on Monday.

Christy McKenzie was hurtling towards the ground at more than 200 kms (120 miles) per hour on Sunday when her parachute failed to deploy, Johan Mulder, the chief instructor at the Johannesburg Skydiving Club, told Reuters.

"When it didn't open she tried to deploy her reserve parachute and it had a fairly hard opening. A couple of the lines broke and so it was not fully open," he said.

This meant that her descent was still dangerously fast.


Powerlines broke her fall and may have saved her life. She survived with a hairline fracture to her pelvis.


"It's extremely, extremely rare ... it's unheard of that there are malfunctions in reserve parachutes," Mulder said, adding that the equipment was being sent to the manufacturer to determine why it did not work properly.


The Johannesburg Star newspaper quoted McKenzie, an experienced skydiver, as saying from her hospital bed: "I'll jump again."


The incident occurred at Carletonville, about 70 km (40 miles) west of Johannesburg.
08/23/04 05:07

 

[jacs]

that is one lucky person

 

[AJM1613]

that is one lucky person

Seriously...

I bet you five bucks that you can't do it.

 

[SoTex]

Holy cow! I can only imagine what was going through her mind while she was falling.

 

[trickblue]

The Johannesburg Star newspaper quoted McKenzie, an experienced skydiver, as saying from her hospital bed: "I'll jump again."

Fool me once... shame on you... fool me twice... shame on me...

 

[Reef Engineer]

Fool me once... shame on you... fool me twice... shame on me...

Ouch. I used to dive when I was younger (part of the skydiving club at my college) and all it took was blowing out one knee to get me to give it up. I can only imagine the skid marks that would have been left in my shorts had I been in her situation!

 

[SoTex]

I can only imagine the skid marks that would have been left in my shorts had I been in her situation!

Now that's funny. Disturbing.........but funny.

 

[Cajuncowboy]

Just more proof that jumping out of a perfectly good airplane for no reason other than to tempt God and fate that there are some truly stupid people in the world. Now if you are a military person that's fine but doing something like that for the fun of it is crazy. Now, driving a stock car at nearly 200 mph, that's ok.

 

[Mamba]

Just more proof that jumping out of a perfectly good airplane for no reason other than to tempt God and fate that there are some truly stupid people in the world. Now if you are a military person that's fine but doing something like that for the fun of it is crazy. Now, driving a stock car at nearly 200 mph, that's ok.

agreed, stock car's and nascar in general are cool....

 

[BrAinPaiNt]

Just more proof that jumping out of a perfectly good airplane for no reason other than to tempt God and fate that there are some truly stupid people in the world. Now if you are a military person that's fine but doing something like that for the fun of it is crazy. Now, driving a stock car at nearly 200 mph, that's ok.

I would love to go sky diving...now bungie jumping I would not go near it lol.

Funny store while I was In Korea.

There were a bunch of officers that go clearance to do some sky diving.

A buddy and I were dispatched to provide medical support (we were in the ambulance platoon) in case something went bad and they needed a ride to the ER.

Well we saw this guy going way off course and he was the last diver for the day so we got in the hummer amb and started tracking him.

I told my buddy that if he gets hurt it will not be a long trip for him as it looked like he was going to land around the troop medical clinic.

Sure enough he landed right outside of the TMC ....right ON the helipad lol...but where the helipad was a little wet he slipped when landing and broke his leg...so we just took a litter out and carried him into the TMC.

Guy said he saw the helipad symbol and was trying to land right in the middle (do not know if that was true or not as he was way off course)...however he did land right in the middle and broke his leg for his trouble lol.

Even with that I would still like to sky dive...but NO WAY on the bungie jumping...I would think that would jerk that **** out of someone....


BTW...here is a cool place in WV to sky dive and bungie from.

It is the new River Gorge Bridge in WV.....I think they open it once a year for skydiving and bungie jumping.
Plus the new river have some killer white water rapid riding.

 

[Hostile]

Holy cow! I can only imagine what was going through her mind while she was falling.

Not to mention her underwear.

 

[SoTex]

Not to mention her underwear.

Rim shot.........damn I'm a good setup man.

 

[trickblue]

BTW...here is a cool place in WV to sky dive and bungie from.

It is the new River Gorge Bridge in WV.....I think they open it once a year for skydiving and bungie jumping.
Plus the new river have some killer white water rapid riding.

That looks like a cool spot... although I thought base jumping was nationally against the law... I bet that place is packed on that day...

I did the bungee swing one time... it was intense...

 

[SoTex]

I did the bungee swing one time... it was intense...

 

[BrAinPaiNt]

LOL....ok I will admit it took me a second to catch it....man that would be embarrasing pulling a willie blade lol.

 

[trickblue]

LOL....ok I will admit it took me a second to catch it....man that would be embarrasing pulling a willie blade lol.

yep... I WB'ed my pants on that one...

 

[Duane]

Ouch. I used to dive when I was younger (part of the skydiving club at my college) and all it took was blowing out one knee to get me to give it up. I can only imagine the skid marks that would have been left in my shorts had I been in her situation!

My brother was active duty 82nd Airborne for three years and spent two years in an Airborne reserve unit. His knees are shot as well. I think his is mostly due to landing with 100pds of gear strapped to him.