Woman who fell 14,000ft without parachute thought she was 'in heaven'

01 April 2023 , 14:19

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Woman who fell 14,000ft without parachute thought she was 'in heaven'

A woman who ended up plunging 14,000 ft without a parachute after a skydiving trip went horrifically wrong has opened up about how she really felt during that terrifying fall. Emma Carey, had been just 20 years old back in June 2013, when she and her instructor jumped out of a helicopter in the Swiss Alps.

Speaking recently on the Darling, Shine! podcast, Emma, who is from Australia, recalled how she was "loving it" when she first jumped, having long dreamed of trying skydiving. She'd felt the tap on her shoulder and crossed her arms as instructed, and it was at that point that the instructor was supposed to pull the parachute.

All Emma felt however was her hair being "ripped backward". She began calling out to the instructor, asking if they were okay but didn't get a response. At this point, she wasn't too worried, assuming he was doing everything he could, but then she saw the "scrunched-up parachute" in front of them.

Sharing what her thoughts had been at that impossible-to-imagine moment with the horrified hosts, Emma remembered: "I thought 100% like this is it. And then we hit the ground. Somehow I wasn't knocked unconscious at all. I was completely awake, the entire time."

When asked whether she thought she was in heaven at this point, Emma replied: "Yeah, I was like, 'surely I've died, surely this is it'. And then the next feeling that I had was just the most intense pain through my whole body, and I was like, 'I've gone to hell'.

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Emma recalls feeling such 'intense pain', she thought she'd died and gone to hell (A Current Affair/YouTube)

Emma has written a book about her experiences, and incredibly, has since learned to walk again after initially being unable to move her legs at all.

Writing on her official website, Emma, often referred to as "the girl who fell from the sky", spoke candidly about how the accident changed who she was forever.

She wrote: "I am so excited to be alive that I feel like the luckiest person in the world. I've found a way to see beauty in absolutely everything - the world, the people, the emotions, the lessons and I feel a kind of happiness which I had never experienced before my accident."

Do you have a shocking tale of survival to share? Email us at julia.banim@reachplc.com

Julia Banim