Alive after two mile fall

By Ryan Morrison

BBC

10th May 2007

Jersey skydiver Michael Holmes survived a two mile fall in New Zealand after his parachute failed. Jersey's Michael Holmes was skydiving in New Zealand when his parachute failed and he found himself heading for the ground at 120mph on Tuesday 12 December.

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

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

He explained what happened:

"Half of the parachute collapsed. The parachute is attached to a container on the skydivers back with a load of lines and they became tangled. "The tangle went right back down to the container with the result that he couldn't release the pain chute, what they call, cut away the main chute.

"Nor could he deploy the reserve and the reserve couldn't deploy itself either because of the tangle."

However, despite falling 12,000ft Michael survived. He fell into a blackberry bush at around 100 mph and suffered a punctured lung and broken ankle.

Michael was found unconscious by police in a blackberry bush in a conservation area in Five Mile Bay in Taupo on New Zealand's North Island.

A Taupo Fire Brigade spokesman said "Mr Holmes had fallen into dense bushes and the brigade had been called to slash a path through to free him"

Michael Holmes snr told us "It's a one in a million chance it could happen and he was very fortunate he survived."

He was asked how his son felt about falling and told us "Michael is Michael and he will bounce back from it and will be skydiving again in a months time".

Eyewitness John Siddles told New Zealand's Daily Post "One of the skydivers was coming down and going round and round. He looked like he was all tangled up or something. He just came down, straight down".

The accident is being investigated by the New Zealand Parachute Industry Association.