A first time jumper and her instructor were involved in a freak skydiving accident when an updraft shot them 40 feet in the air as they approached landing.

The unidentified woman in Collegeville, PA and her instructor at Keystone Skydive Center, Chad Galbraith, were doing a routine tandem skydive, and everything went smoothly. Until they were about thirty feet off the ground, when a sudden updraft shot them in the air another 40 feet. They landed hard on the ground and the parachute continued to drag them down the runway. Luckily, Galbraith was able to cut them free before any additional damage could be done.

The incident left them both badly injured. Galbraith suffered a serious lower back injury requiring two surgeries, and the unidentified woman sustained cracked ribs and a collapsed lung. Both are expected to make a full recovery.

“All of a sudden, the updraft stopped and the wind came from the side. It folded the parachute underneath and put the parachute into a spin,” said Marc Nadeau, a skydive worker who witnessed the accident. “They landed hard on their side into the grass and were dragged into the runway. At that time the instructor was able to jettison — cut away — the main parachute to keep themselves from being dragged any further.”

The lead image is stock. The video is real.
[source: Huff Post]