1. Laverne EverettAt 80 years of age, Ms. Everett had one unfulfilled desire – she really wanted to jump out of a plane.
With the popularity and availability of tandem jumping, Ms. Everett decided to…take the plunge! Remember how the last one we talked about went? Well, To her dismay, the experience almost turned out to be her last one. Everett was a bit hesitant to even leave the plane, as she looked out the door to open sky and her knees buckled. Her jump partner, to whom she was strapped to, gave her a slight prod towards the opening and a bit of encouragement, and out they went.
Unfortunately, is seems that Everett wasn’t as securely attached to her partner as they thought. Almost immediately, Everett begins to slip out her harness. Remember, Everett was basically along for the ride, and the instructor was the only one with a parachute. If she loses your partner, she loses her safe ride to the ground. Everett’s partner had to physically hold on to her, to prevent her from plummeting to the ground. Even the cameraman, who jumped to film the experience, attempted to maneuver in close to assist, to no avail. Everett was left dangling thousands of feet in the air, as her partner struggled desperately to hold on to her.
Amazingly, Everett, who apparently has nerves of steel, didn’t even scream while clinging desperately to her jump partner. She later stated during an interview that she wasn’t even really scared. Everett’s partner managed to hold on long enough to get them both to the ground safely, and Everett only suffered a few scrapes and bruises from the landing. And, of course, a great story to tell her grandchildren. And yes, all of this was caught on camera.
2. Hans LangeWe have already mentioned the sport of BASE jumping earlier. Waiting until the absolute last second to pull the chute results (I suppose) in a more exhilarating experience. Mr. Lange, however, got a bit more than feelings of euphoria on a BASE jump that went wrong in 2008. Lange, leaping from the top of the Bjoerketind in Norway, found out what happens when poor planning, cockiness, and a lack of wings come together. Simply put, it spells trouble for folks jumping off mountains.
The peak of the Bjoerketind has an elevation on the low side of 5,000+ feet. Lange hurled himself off of this peak and was falling upwards of 100 mph – next to a mountain wall. What couldn’t go wrong? Realizing that he and the mountain were in too-close proximity to one another, Lange tried to maneuver away from the wall by deploying his chute. Unfortunately, in this battle of man v. mountain, the mountain won. Lange was battered repeatedly into the rocks protruding from the side of the mountain, all the while the lines of his chute becoming entangled, which didn’t allow for a slower decent. The whole ordeal came to crashing end (pun intended) when Lange impacted with a tree at the base of the mountain.
Not many folks can say they survived a fall off the top of a mountain, but Lange can. Not only did he live, he only suffered a broken leg for his troubles. Not bad, all things considered. It certainly didn’t deter Lange, who has promised to get right back in the swing of BASE jumping when he recovers from his injuries. Oh yeah, this was all caught on tape – naturally!
3. Lareece Butler
Parachutes that fail to operate can happen anywhere. Lareece Butler, a young lady from South Africa, discovered this personally on what she thought was a routine skydiving trip in 2010. The set up sounds very much like every other similar incident – a normal exit from the plane, followed by an uneventful freefall (if falling to the Earth like a rock can be described as uneventful).
What happened next, however, had Ms. Butler resorting to prayer as her last option. First, she attempted to deploy her primary chute. It didn’t open. After several tries, she then attempted to deploy her reserve chute. It did not open either. One can only imagine the blood-curdling fear that must occur in such a circumstance. Ms. Butler said that her only course of action left was prayer. She recalls thinking, “God save me please.” God, it is said, hears and answers the prayers of believers. Hurling toward the ground from 3,000 feet, the impact left Ms. Butler injured with a broken leg and a concussion, but alive.
What makes this particular story even more compelling is that Ms. Butler claims that she had changed her mind about jumping while still in the door of the plane, and that her instructor literally pushed her out of the plane despite her protest. Butler describes holding on to the plane’s door frame and the instructor pushing her several times, resulting in her falling out of the plane. I don’t know, but isn’t that, like, against the law or something?
4. Dave Hodgman (and a guy named Frank)
This incident was captured on film, and was a noteworthy news item when it happened in 1985 in Victoria, Australia. Mr. Hodgman was jumping at an elevation of about 12,000 feet as one member of a skydiving formation. Things didn’t go according to plan, as Hodgman inadvertently opened his chute while he was directly under another skydiver (this would be the guy named Frank). Frank didn’t see Hodgman either, and was opening his own chute at about the same moment as Hodgman. Two skydivers trying to share the same space, at the same time, is ripe for disaster, and Dave crashed immediately into Frank.
The violent impact knocked Frank unconscious, and tangled the lines of both deployed chutes. Frank’s chute remained deployed and inflated, while Hodgman’s chute would inflate and deflate randomly – the entire situation causing both men to be violently flailed about. Additionally, with one chute essentially trying to support the weight of two men, they were falling faster than one desires in these situations, finally crashing into a crowded parking lot – amazingly, between some parked cars. And they lived.
Hodgeman had pretty extensive injuries, while Frank came away relatively unhurt. To his credit, Hodgman was back to jumping out of perfectly working planes as soon as his injuries healed.
Click here to see the working principle of Parachute
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