Alive after two mile fall..
By Ryan Morrison
Jersey skydiver Michael Holmes survived a two mile fall in New Zealand after his parachute failed.

Imagine jumping out of a plane 12,000ft up, pulling the chord on your parachute and then having it not open.

That is what happened to Michael Holmes in Jersey during a jump in New Zealand on Tuesday 12 December.

During what would have been a relatively routine jump for a man who has been doing this for seven years, and was the youngest British person ever to qualify as a skydiving instructor, the parachute failed.

Michaels father told us that the main parachute became tangled, which then caused problems for the reserve parachute.

However, despite falling 12,000ft Michael survived. He landed in a blackberry bush and suffered a punctured lung and broken ankle.

Best wishes from Extreme Sports Cafe Michael, and you are a lucky bugger!

What is skydiving?

Skydiving involves breaking of a free-fall from a height using a parachute.

Skydiving has origin that are deep set in the military, being used since the early 1900s. Competitions first started in the 1930s, and it became an international sport in 1951.

Today it is performed as a recreational activity and a competitive sport, as well as for the deployment of military personnel and occasionally forest firefighters.

Parachuting has complex skills that can take thousands of jumps to master, but the basics are often fully understood and useful during the first few jumps. There are four basic areas of skill: basic safety, free fall manoeuvres, parachute operation, and landing.

Posted by admin on Thursday, December 21st, 2006 at 1:22 am.