Skydiving might be one of the items on most people's bucket list. While some people get to experience the thrill of falling from the sky, for others, it may turn into a nightmare. Just like what happened to 16-year-old MacKenzie Wethington from Joshua, Texas, who jumped from 3,500 feet in the air. MacKenzie's primary parachute failed to open, and gravity pulled her down back to earth. However, miraculously she survived the fall.
When MacKenzie fell to the ground, it was a big thud that resulted in a fractured spine, shoulder blade, ribs, and pelvis. She also sustained internal injuries. However, what's important is that she survived. Some say it was luck, but her family believes divine hands cushioned her fall.
"She hit the ground hard. God caught her," said Meagan, Mackenzie's sister.
MacKenzie has always been fascinated with skydiving so her father promised her that they will jump off the plane on her sixteenth birthday. They went Saturday to Chickasha, Oklahoma and booked a session with Pegasus Air Sports Center. According to the family, MacKenzie and her dad went through several hours of training prior to their jump. However, things went wrong.
"The guy with the radio on the ground is trying to talk her out of what's going on and telling her what to do and she can't do it. She's going too fast and in different directions she can't reach up and grab it anyway and then when she goes into the spiral he keeps telling her to cut away to release the shoot and to pull the reserve," said Joe Wethington, Mackenzie's father.
Based on reports, the main parachute did not fully open for some reason but questions are being raised as to why the first-time jumper was not accompanied by an instructor.
"The jumper left the airplane. The parachute appeared to open ok. Soon after the opening the parachute started to rotate. There are a number of technical reasons why that could have happened possibly caused by the jumper herself. The jumper didn't sought out the rotation in accordance with the training she received earlier and contented to rotate to the ground and hurt herself," said Pegasus Air Sports Center owner Bob Swanson
According to the Maczkenzie's sister Meagan, another jumper who was set to follow her sister did not jump. The instructor was not able to accompany the father and daughter tandem.
After the accident, MacKenzie was flown to a hospital in Oklahoma where she remains in intensive care. Her family shared that the girl is in and out consciousness but breathes on her own and remembers how her skydiving experience turned from the best day of her life into a nightmare.
Experts think physics and luck might have saved Mackenzie from certain death.
"You can think of a fall as a form of energy. Basically, if a person steps out of a plane you have no velocity. Gravity will start to pull you down and you accelerate," said professor James Kakalios of the University of Minnesota's School of Physics and Astronomy.
Kakalios theorized that the teen skydiver might have done things while in midair that increased air drag that somehow slowed her fall down.
"She's a miracle child...," the child's father said.
The family might hire a lawyer to find out what really happened during the jump and see if people should be held liable. They have also started a Facebook page about Mackenzie as well as a crowdfunding page to help cover her medical expenses.
