I pulled the cord but it didn’t feel right. I tried the reserve and instantly knew it was not working. I just thought, I have got children, I can’t die
PARACHUTE MURDER PLOT WIFE
moment I got on, I wanted to get off. “All the way up I knew I shouldn’t be jumping, I just didn’t understand why. I think it was some sort of sixth sense.” Victoria had become addicted to skydiving after completing her first jump at 16 while raising money for a cancer charity in her mother’s memory. Ironically, she had already decided this was likely to be her last jump. After the birth of her second child, Victoria felt she had less time and no longer wanted to carry on with such a risky sport.
She was the last one to jump from the plane that day.
She says: “We were quite low and I was last out so you pull the parachute straight away. I pulled the cord, but it didn’t feel right. There was a parachute above, but it was turning, not controllable.
“I got the twists out but it did not feel right and 20 seconds later I tried to deploy the reserve. There’s an initial drop as you cut away the main parachute. You go back into freefall at about 120mph then you pull the reserve. I instantly realised the reserve wasn’t working, but, initially, I wasn’t concerned.
“It was annoyance and anger to start with. But that quickly turned to fear in two to three seconds because the spin was really violent.
“I had no sense of that earth approaching. I was so fixated on trying to get out of the mess I was in. Looking down is just going to waste valuable seconds.” Despite her desperate attempts, Victoria found her reserve parachute was not attached on one side, causing the violent spin. Then came the sickening impact. “I remember nothing except a metallic bang,” she says.
FUSS
“I just have a few snapshots. I opened my eyes and saw a friend who is a doctor. I could wiggle my hands and feet so I knew my spine was in one piece.
“I felt no pain because of the mix of ketamine and morphine the medics had given me and I remember