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Teen Girl Cheats Death Despite Parachute Malfunction at 3,500 Feet

by Kathy Jones on Jan 30 2014 8:44 PM

 Teen Girl Cheats Death Despite Parachute Malfunction at 3,500 Feet
A 16-year old girl from Texas suffered the worst nightmare of any sky diving enthusiast when her parachute malfunctioned at 3,500 feet.
Makenzie Wethington was hoping to make her 16th birthday a special occasion with a sky diving trip and travelled from Texas to Oklahoma as her home state did not allow anyone under 18-years old to attempt the dive. However it turned into a nightmare trip as her fall left her with a broken pelvis, lumbar spine in her lower back, a shoulder blade, and several ribs as well as damaged her liver.

While Makenzie’s father Joe Wethington has blamed the skydiving company, saying that they should not have allowed her to make the jump, Robert Swainson, owner and chief instructor at Pegasus Air Sports Centre who organized the jump, said that Makenzie seemed not to have taken any corrective action. Swainson said that her father made the first jump without any problems but when Makenzie jumped, her chute went up and not out. He added that she had a radio hook-up through which someone gave instructions how to overcome the problem but it seemed as if she did not take any.

Saying that it was a horrific incident to see no matter who made the jump, Wethington said, “I wanted to be behind her, you know, in case something happened. But that couldn’t happen because of the weight of the plane and the people, so I had to be first. She had to be last. It was a horror to see, no matter who it was, but I sure didn’t want it to be my little girl.”

Source-Medindia


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