Still not sure if skydiving is something you want to do? Well, you can read this story and know that even if your ‘chute doesn’t open, you can still survive the few thousand feet drop like this man did in New Zealand just the other day1
The Telegraph writes:
Liam Dunne, 35, who is a father of two, broke his back after dramatically crashing into the ground at high speed and landing in the soft, waterlogged area.
His reserve parachute opened at the last moment on the horrifying descent at a festival in Moteuko, New Zealand, but it was still too late to prevent him suffering serious injury.
Mr Dunne, originally from St Annes, Lancashire, was treated at the scene by medics and taken to a specialist spinal unit in Christchurch where doctors have advised him he should walk again.
Since the accident two weeks ago, he has astonished doctors with his recovery after undergoing surgery to insert metal pins into his shattered spine.
Speaking from his hospital bed, Mr Dunne said: “Those last 1,000 feet it was like ‘here we go, this is it’. It wasn’t nice. But that said, it was a one in a million accident and a one in a million save.
“Skydiving is an awesome sport, and I’ve done 4,000 jumps and never had a problem.”
Mr Dunne, who now lives in Taupo, said his canopy opened normally after he jumped from 3,900m at a festival. But he went into an unrecoverable spin, had to ditch his main chute, and couldn’t find the reserve canopy’s handle.
It finally opened just 228m from the ground.
He said: “As my reserve chute was coming out I realised it was too late, so I just braced for the impact.
“Luckily I hit the softest patch of ground on the whole airfield. I bounced hard and my whole left side went numb.
“It felt like I had broken every bone in my body, and I couldn’t breathe. I was just sitting there dying. But my friend landed next to me, and she said ‘you’re all right, you can breathe’.
“She looked at my leg and said ‘look, it’s still there, it’s not deformed or anything’.
“She was with me the whole time. Then the ambulance came and filled me full of drugs.
“I probably ought to be dead the speed I hit. Twelve weeks of spinal rehab and I’ll be fine.
Read more at telegraph.co.uk/news
