Fell Almost 11,000 Feet And Lives To Tell The Tale

Christine McKenzie figures she should be dead. Given the circumstances, she's probably right.

The 23-year old South African woman was skydiving with other members of the Johannesburg Skydiving Club from an altitude of almost 11,000 feet Sunday when her main parachute failed to deploy. No worries, mate, she had a reserve chute. Only it fouled, tangling McKenzie in the lines and causing her to spin out of control as she fell toward the ground.

"I was in a spiral heading to the ground," she told South Africa's Independent newspaper. "They told me later that if I had fiddled with the parachute lines I would have been in trouble. It appears that a lot more lines had snapped and the tangle was keeping the parachute in place."

McKenzie fell into power lines near the Carleton Airfield on the West Rand. "If it wasn't for the lines, I would have died," she told the Independent. It all happened so fast. I hit the ground really hard and I was kinda waiting to die. Then the pain set in. I knew I was alive but I wasn't sure how badly I had been injured."

In fact, she wasn't very badly injured at all. Doctors found a hairline fracture in her pelvis -- and that's it.
 
McKenzie said that had been her 112th jump. "And I'll jump again," she said.

FMI: www.jsc.co.za