Woman Miraculously Survives 5,000-Foot Fall After Her Parachute Fails to Open While Skydiving
A woman is lucky to be alive after she went skydiving this weekend and her parachute failed, causing her to freefall more than 5,000 feet to the ground.
The incident, which happened on Saturday in Canada, was witnessed by several bystanders, who watched in fear and disbelief as the woman, whose name has not been released, plummeted through the air.
“It’s a miracle,” Denis Demers told Canadian Broadcasting Corporation/Radio-Canada on Wednesday, adding that the woman was falling faster than anybody else.
“I don’t know how a person can survive a fall from an airplane like that,” Demers said.
The 30-year-old was participating in a jump at Quebec’s skydiving facility, Parachutisme Adrénaline, near Montreal-Mirabel International Airport, CBC reports.
It wasn’t her first time skydiving either, as the Trois-Rivières Police told the outlet that she had prior experience with the sport.
Still, that couldn’t prepare her for the terror that was to come this past Saturday.
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As the woman approached Trois-Rivières around 6 p.m., she jumped out of the plane, which is when her main and backup parachutes failed to open.
Another bystander, Océane Duplessis, told CBC that she was preparing to board her own plane to skydive when she witnessed the accident.
“We watched all the way to the end. We kept hoping something would happen,” Duplessis recalled. “We were very worried. Very.”
After rapidly falling more than 5,000-feet, the woman hit a patch of trees and landed in a wooded area.
Surprisingly, she only suffered non-life-threatening injuries, including a broken vertebrae and several fractures, but is currently recovering in a hospital, the Trois-Rivières Police tells PEOPLE.
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An investigation is currently underway by the Trois-Rivières Police, who said they are determining whether this was a case of criminal negligence.
Parachutisme Adrénaline did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
While Saturday’s incident was certainly a terrifying one, skydiving accidents are actually rather rare.
According to the United States Parachute Association, there were approximately 2,147 injuries for the country total in 2018, which equates to 1 in every 1,536 skydives or 0.07 percent of all jumps, while fatalities were even less.
There were only 13 skydiving-related deaths in 2018 or 1 in every 253,669 skydives/0.0004 percent of all jumps.
