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peacefuljeffrey

CNN story - South African skydiver mishap survived!

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Yeah.. I spoke to her last night. She is a little sore, but other than a hairline fracture to her pelvis and a few bruises she is fine ;)

All I can say is WE LOVE YOU PUNKIN ;) :D Your guarding angels need a well deserved vacation :P

Thinking of you and wish you a restful and speedy recovery :)
**Those who refuse to live and learn simply exist**

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I walked in the door today and two coworkers met me at my desk and said "Did you hear about that girl in Afica whose parachute didn't open and she lived because she hit powerlines?! It was all over CNN so it had to be true!" No joke, just happened about 30 minutes ago.
_________________________________________
you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me....
I WILL fly again.....

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Guess that solves the debate then... when you have a double mal - try to make it to the power lines.



First rule about landing in power lines: "DON'T LAND IN POWER LINES!"

I guess there needs to be a caveat about double mals... but I don't think I'll tell my students that.

Dixie
HISPA #56 Facil Rodriguez
"Scientific research has shown that 60% of the time, it works every time."

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Guess that solves the debate then... when you have a double mal - try to make it to the power lines.



First rule about landing in power lines: "DON'T LAND IN POWER LINES!"

I guess there needs to be a caveat about double mals... but I don't think I'll tell my students that.



Kind of like this mal

And by the by I gonna have to say there is a horse shove shoved somewhere

I'm not afriad of dying, I'm afraid of never really living- Erin Engle

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I walked in the door today and two coworkers met me at my desk and said "Did you hear about that girl in Afica whose parachute didn't open and she lived because she hit powerlines?! It was all over CNN so it had to be true!"



Similar response at my office.

Given all the strange and fascinating skydiving stories I've read about in these forums, I'm alittle mystified how CNN picked this one out as worthy of worldwide attention.

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which lines broke on her reserve that caused it "not to fully open"?

all i can imagine is that all the lines on one side of the canopy ripped, so it was only half a wing?



I have just seen this thread now, and would like to correct what has been sensationalised by a lot of papers. I had a fully deployed reserve above my head. The reserve lines were severely twisted and a number of the lines were severed (due to friction burns - this is under investigation and I'm not willing to speculate what caused this). The lines that were severed were held in place by the line twists. So I had a full wing above my head. (I assume that, had the lines not been so severely twisted, and the severed lines were loose, I would not have had a full wing above my head.) The parachute was spiralling and I could not control it. I hit a power line and then the ground. I was walking the next day, and went back to work a week ago.
Thanks to everyone who has sent well-wishes, and especially to everyone at JSC - you're an awesome bunch of people! ;)

not jumping sux

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Wow....that's the second person I have seen be saved major injury by power lines. First was a main/reserve entanglement at Raeford. Crazy isn't it? :S Glad she was relatively unscathed. 8 lives left I suppose. :D



I seem to recall another South African (Chris?) who had a double mal in the early 90's, near Wonderboom. He had material above his head but nothing inflated. The washing above his head got snared by the power lines, saving him from impact. He hung there, suspended from the power lines, until something burnt through and he fell to the ground. Perhaps Tonto can confirm (or dispell) the incident.



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It's true, but it wasn't a double mal. It was a 4 way rotation wrap that went very wrong. He passed between the powerlines under a spinning mess. The wrap pulled them together and shorted them out, and he dropped into the road with his head on the curb, still wrapped.

Chris (Flint) was the guy involved, and Andre Le Roux and Cameron Condie were other team members. Chris's only injury was to his right thumb, which was badly cut when his little plastic orange "zak" knife broke in use.

Lesson here is if you're in so much shit you need a hook knife to save you, carry one which stands a good chance of working when you need it. If you have a "zak" knife, give it to someone you really don't like.

t
It's the year of the Pig.

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Just picked up on this one. It was the most bizarre of incidents: as Tonto said, Chris landed horizontally with his head against a curbstone, on tar, so softly that he wasn't even winded. The curbstone (angled one) looked like a head cushion, if you can believe that!
I landed and ran to him expecting a very dead teammate and he's hardly bruised (except for that wicked-looking cut on the thumb).
I tell that story in a pub these days and no-one believes me...

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Hi Tonto
It was actually a 5-way at that time: Paul Labuschagne was pilot, I was pin, Cameron 3 and Chris alternated 4 with Fionn Williamson.
Whoever was out of the stack on that jump was Camera. Fionn filmed that incident, but my copy was overwritten. Amazing footage with Fionn catching everthing, then spiralling madly after Chris who got smaller and smaller until there was this flash of light as he went through the power lines.
You actually replaced 2 guys: Paul and Fionn both dropped out after China.
Chris wore a tertiary reserve for a year or two after this.
Cheers
A

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