Monday, March 2, 2015

Skydiver Suffers Seizure In Midair; Dramatic Rescue Caught On Video

from huffpost


Posted: Updated: 





Christopher Jones sees himself as a lucky guy.
The 22-year-old Australian suffered a seizure during a skydiving training course in November, and his instructor -- who had to make two attempts to deploy the unconscious Jones' parachute -- caught the rescue on video.
Yet Jones says he was lucky to have the experience in the first place.
Jones' lifelong dream of becoming a pilot was dashed when he was diagnosed with epilepsy. After going four years without a seizure, he decided to try skydiving to experience the same feeling pilots do, according to Australia's ABC News.
"I've always wanted to have the feeling of flight, so I just thought considering I can't fly a plane due to my condition, I thought I'd give it a go," Jones said.
During the skydive in the video above, the fun jump quickly turned scary when instructor Sheldon McFarlane noticed Jones roll onto his back. The video shows McFarlane trying to approach Jones to grab his ripcord, but he fails, and Jones plummets further toward the earth. On McFarlane's second try, he successfully deploys the chute.
McFarlane says Jones would have landed safely even if he hadn't reached the ripcord. Jones was equipped with an automatic activation device that would have deployed the parachute once he reached a lower altitude.
"At no time was I worried he was going to hit the ground without a parachute, but given the circumstances and where we were I thought it would be better to get him under parachute earlier than later," McFarlane told ABC News. "As far as difficult, yeah, it was OK. I got him."
Jones said he woke up at 3,000 feet, under the parachute, and landed safely. He had been unconscious in free-fall for more than 30 seconds, NBC News reports. Jones didn't need medical attention when he reached the ground; however, instructors at the WA Skydiving Academy say he likely won't be able to skydive again.
"Possibly the scariest moment of my life," Jones said.




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