Two parachuting police officers in Thailand averted death recently after a mid-air tangling.
During a paratrooper exercise in the Southeast Asian country, a video takes footage of police jumping out a plane over Kaeng Krachan National Park. As the men file out of the plane, the last jumps do not seem so smooth.
Then the video cuts a ground cameraman filming two police sergeants as they float to the ground. The men fight for life as their parachute strings are tangled.
Reportedly, others yell for the troubled sergeants to hug each other in an attempt to keep the air billowing into the parachute fabric.
Amazingly, the men landed safely on the ground.
100-Year-Old Vet Jumps
Recreational skydiving has grown in popularity over the years. And seniors have been jumping headfirst into the activity.
In January, veteran Charlie Montanaro did a tandem jump for his 100th birthday in Tucson, Arizona. Before he jumped, the World War II veteran told ABC 15 that the skydive was “about all there’s left to do in life” for him.
Montanaro told the news station he was a veteran of the Merchant Marine, and during World War II, he and other marine seaman delivered war cargo to troops.
Granny Has Fun In Wild Parachuting Jump
One California woman, celebrating her 80th birthday, nearly didn’t make it to her 81st birthday back in 2011.
The octogenarian fell out of her harness as an instructor pushed her out of a plane. According to Public Radio International, a video of the 2011 experience went viral a year after someone posted it.
The video showed Laverne Everett slipping out of her harness as her instructor and the camera operator grab at her. The trio falls 13,000 feet to the ground but lands without any fatalities.
Earlier in the video, the woman was upbeat and said she had wanted to celebrate her birthday with the sky jump “for at least ten years.”
But, while in the air, the woman had second thoughts. She clings to the aircraft door before getting pushed out of the plane.
The California skydiving center had been under investigation and was issued fines in the past.
An employee of the Parachute Center told the New York Daily News would not comment on the messy video.
“No one got hurt,” the employee said. “The equipment worked properly.”
Everett died on April 2, 2020, at age 88. In her obituary, there was no cause of death, but her family said she was the “Sky Diving Granny.”
Skyjumping A Deathwish?
Think skydiving is risky? It depends.
One English skydiving outfit posted on its website that for every 100,000 skydives made, approximately one person dies in an accident.
Last year, the U.S. Parachute Association said 11 people died out of an estimated 2.8 jumps. In the organization’s records starting in 2000, the highest number of deaths was 35 in 2001.
