Monday, 18 May 2009

A skydiver from Staffordshire has survived a 6,000ft free fall in Russia.

James Boole, from Tamworth, said he was supposed to have been given a signal by another skydiver to open his parachute, but it came two seconds too late.

Mr Boole, who was filming the other skydiver for a television documentary, landed on snow-covered rocks and suffered a broken back and rib.

"I really thought that I was going to die - an incredible feeling of sadness and just how unfair that was," he said.

"What went through my mind was my wife and my daughter."

James Boole
Mr Boole said he could not make sense of his survival

Mr Boole, who has made 2,500 jumps, is now back at home in a body brace.

He said: "(The other flyer) took us so close to the ground where I thought I was dead.

"When I finally looked at the ground and realised how low I was, I knew there was no time for me to get a full parachute above my head.

"For the first 48 hours after the accident I thought maybe I am dead and this is some kind of after-life limbo, or some other reality, because I couldn't make sense of it - how I was still here to come through this?"

His wife, Kristina, who is also a skydiver, said: "For the moment I'm thinking just of him to recover, so not about jumping or anything like that.

"But yeah (I) would like him to stop doing that."

(http://news.bbc.co.uk)