Photo: fox5sandiego.com
An experienced skydiver is now in the hospital after what freefalling about 5,000 feet during a jump at Montreal’s Parachutisme Adrénaline center, when both her parachutes failed to open.
Eyewitnesses tell CBC that the woman had both her parachutes trailing behind her, hence their conclusion that they had failed to deploy. An investigation into the incident is now underway to determine whether foul play or a human error on the diver’s part triggered the near-tragedy.
As for the woman, she miraculously survived. She jumped from the airplane at an altitude of about 1.5 kilometers / 5,000 feet and freefell. While onlookers and other divers on the ground looked on expecting the worse, she was lucky to land on a wooden patch, and the trees broke her fall.
“It's a miracle,” Denis Demers, who was at the scene when the incident happened, says for the media outlet. “I don't know how a person can survive a fall from an airplane like that.”
The woman’s exact condition is not known, except for the fact that the fall did not kill her. Sources with the police tell CBC that she has several broken bones from the moment of impact with the trees, including broken vertebrae. However, adds the same source, as of this moment, her life is not in danger – but the insider makes no mention of the quality of life she can expect to have post-recovery.
As for the eyewitnesses’ account that neither chute deployed, Nancy Koreen, director of sports promotion for the US Parachute Association (USPA), notes that such phrasing is “pretty vague and often not correct.” It may have looked that way from the ground, but in reality, if a diver doesn’t open the parachute at the right altitude, it doesn’t have time to deploy. Technically speaking, that’s not a malfunction but a human error.
“To say none of the parachutes opened is probably misleading... It's not really the way the parachute works,” Koreen continues. She says some divers may panic when the main parachute doesn’t deploy, which could make them mess up the procedures for opening the backup chute.
As for the woman, she miraculously survived. She jumped from the airplane at an altitude of about 1.5 kilometers / 5,000 feet and freefell. While onlookers and other divers on the ground looked on expecting the worse, she was lucky to land on a wooden patch, and the trees broke her fall.
“It's a miracle,” Denis Demers, who was at the scene when the incident happened, says for the media outlet. “I don't know how a person can survive a fall from an airplane like that.”
The woman’s exact condition is not known, except for the fact that the fall did not kill her. Sources with the police tell CBC that she has several broken bones from the moment of impact with the trees, including broken vertebrae. However, adds the same source, as of this moment, her life is not in danger – but the insider makes no mention of the quality of life she can expect to have post-recovery.
As for the eyewitnesses’ account that neither chute deployed, Nancy Koreen, director of sports promotion for the US Parachute Association (USPA), notes that such phrasing is “pretty vague and often not correct.” It may have looked that way from the ground, but in reality, if a diver doesn’t open the parachute at the right altitude, it doesn’t have time to deploy. Technically speaking, that’s not a malfunction but a human error.
“To say none of the parachutes opened is probably misleading... It's not really the way the parachute works,” Koreen continues. She says some divers may panic when the main parachute doesn’t deploy, which could make them mess up the procedures for opening the backup chute.
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