Danged lucky…

“A skydiver is lucky to be alive after free-falling 5,000ft when both of her parachutes failed to open during a jump.

The 30-year-old woman was taking part in a dive at Montreal's Parachutisme Adrénaline center on Saturday when the near-tragedy unfolded.

Witnesses described watching in horror as she plunged to earth with both her main chute and reserve trailing uselessly behind her.

But she survived with non-life-threatening fractures after her fall was broken by some trees, and is now recovering in hospital.

She is thought to have broken several bones including her spine, medics say…”

https://mol.im/a/7363709

God loves her.

A lot.

great feeling when the main chute deploys

can't imagine having two fail

in actual fact she probably had at least 'partial deployment' but still a very luck gal

--------------------------------

And in the category of "Stupidly Lucky" check out this Liveleak!car crash video!

I do not know if there was video in the link as it took forever to load. Bet there is some though.

adrenaline, yea I would say so. Crazy.

There was a man with whom I worked and directed 20 years ago in the Denver area who was a sky diving enthusiast. He jumped out of a plane and his parachute became tangled or did not open properly. He and his chute twirled around in a circular motion. He fell about 5000 feet to the ground. Broke nearly every bone in his body and did a lot of damage to his internal organs.
He was permanently crippled but he lived.

The odds of both chutes failing seem to be extremely low. I'm assuming she deployed her reserve chute before properly cutting away her main chute?

Anyway, that would be pretty terrifying.

"Bytes, meet the skydiver."

"Skydiver, meet Bytes."

"You guys have a lot in common."

The article is not correct, and suggests that she impacted with a total pack closure and survived, which is certainly not the case. It's incomplete, inaccurate reporting.

The comments by Nancy Koreen of the US Parachute Association, who was given the facts (and which are not reported in this article) hint at the fact that the story is reported incorrectly. She states that to say the parachutes were not open is "misleading."

Sounds more like the jumper had a main malfunction and either didn't get it cut away or deployed the reserve into the main or through it to create a double malfuction, and impacted under considerable drag.

Despite all the stories and rumors about freefall to impact being survived by WWII soldiers in snow and other fanciful myths, none have been proven true. It's not survivable.

This woman may have had garbage above her when she bounced, but she did have considerable drag, enough to reduce her fall rate enough to survive.

“as she plunged to earth with both her main chute and reserve trailing uselessly behind her”

Actually the parachutes weren’t trailing uselessly. They still probably saved her life by slowing the decent and getting caught in the trees.

She had a pretty intense 90 seconds

quote:

Originally posted by 1s1k:
“as she plunged to earth with both her main chute and reserve trailing uselessly behind her”

Actually the parachutes weren’t trailing uselessly. They still probably saved her life by slowing the decent and getting caught in the trees.

Yeah, its just not possible to survive unless they were slowing her down a good amount. They no doubt saved her life.

quote:

Originally posted by sns3guppy:
Despite all the stories and rumors about freefall to impact being survived by WWII soldiers in snow and other fanciful myths, none have been proven true.

Interesting. I was just thinking of an account I read when I was a kid of someone who was reportedly blown out of a bomber at 16,000 feet (IIRC) without a parachute and survived by falling through trees and into deep snow.

I’ve wondered about that story many times, not least about how he could have then walked to safety/recovery through snow that deep. And based on what I have read recently about extractions via ropes out of the jungles of Vietnam and Laos, falling through even relatively small tree branches would have been no joke if they were thick enough to provide any sort of gradual cushioning effect.

quote:

Originally posted by sns3guppy:
Despite all the stories and rumors about freefall to impact being survived by WWII soldiers in snow and other fanciful myths, none have been proven true. It's not survivable.

Is there proof that these people that survived such incidents are not telling the truth?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Alkemade

Strange things do happen in this world. Some of them nothing short of miraculous.

Oh yeah: there are all kinds of wild tales out there, all with the elements of credibility, but without the truth. Over the years I've met hundreds of people who claimed that their uncle or third cousin's second aunt's cat's sperm donor survived such a fall without benefit of a parachute. None have ever held up.

USPA did a study on it years ago; despite all the stories which somehow gain legitimacy the more they're told (especially through centers of truth such as wikipedia), in song, TV show, and of course the most reliable of all...internet searches...none have held up to scrutiny.

If you've ever hit the ground after a jump or seen someone bounce, you'll understand why, in technicolor.

I do. I spent time in intensive care following a malfunction over 30 years ago. It still bothers me to this day. I can say without any reservation that had my rate of descent been any higher, I'd have not survived. I had a canopy above me. A damaged, spinning canopy, but a canopy none the less.

The article suggests that both canopies failed to open and yet describes her main and reserve trailing above. The USPA spokeswoman who heard the details of the event (not given in the article) stated that insinuations that the parachute didn't open were misleading. Simply put, the article is wrong.

I'm trying to recall my high school and college physics.....

125 meters per second? I can't imagine a free fall is survivable.

Will she take the hint?

Terminal velocity for a jumper varies between 120 and 220 to 250 mph vertically, depending on body position and other factors. Jumpers with loose fabric fall a bit more slowly as do light jumpers. Freestyle positions, head-to-earth, and max-track confiburations produce the highest vertical velocities.

There can be several reasons for both canopies deployed, not the least of which is a firing of an automatic activation device that releases the reserve upon reaching a preset altitude and fall rate. If the main canopy is already out of the pack or on the way out, it can contribute to fouling both canopies or deployment bags, and may result in a malfunction.

quote:

Originally posted by darthfuster:
Will she take the hint?

Hopefully she will get back in the air as soon as she's able. It's important to get back on the horse that bucked you off, for emotional and psychological reasons. That nightmare is one that grows on you if you don't put it to bed.

quote:

Originally posted by sns3guppy:
Oh yeah: there are all kinds of wild tales out there, all with the elements of credibility, but without the truth. Over the years I've met hundreds of people who claimed that their uncle or third cousin's second aunt's cat's sperm donor survived such a fall without benefit of a parachute. None have ever held up.

USPA did a study on it years ago; despite all the stories which somehow gain legitimacy the more they're told (especially through centers of truth such as wikipedia), in song, TV show, and of course the most reliable of all...internet searches...none have held up to scrutiny.

I'm open to reading any sources you can point to that disprove the experiences of the seven people in the link I provided. Granted it's a wiki link, but if you've got books, magazine articles, etc., to recommend that prove these people didn't experience the events they say they did, I would be interested to read them.

If she'd landed on her feet, her new nickname would be 'Shorty'.