An Australian skydiver was likely saved by a fellow jumper who pulled his ripcord for him after he suffered an apparent seizure during freefall. In dramatic (really) video from the helmet cam of his instructor Sheldon McFarlane, a student skydiver identified only as Christopher at first seemed fine as he fell from 12,000 feet over Pinjarra. Things obviously went wrong as Christopher’s limbs seemed to tense up and he rolled over on his back, falling away from his instructor. What happened next would be worthy of an action movie.McFarlane dove after his student and managed to grab hold of him long enough to release his parachute at high altitude.
Christopher regained consciousness at 3,000 feet and was able to take control of the chute and land safely. It seemed like all in a day’s work for the folks at WA Skydiving Academy. “The guy came to consciousness under the canopy well before he landed,” Robin O’Neill, chief instructor for the school, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). “He landed uneventfully. It was a controlled landing in the Pinjarra drop zone.” The student was fine by the time he landed and no medical attention was required but there was clearly knowledge that he had a medical condition. “(Christopher’s) treating specialist wrote a letter specifically saying he was fit for skydiving,” O’Neill told ABC. “Obviously he wasn’t.”
