A New Zealand parachutist who survived a fall of 15,000 feet after his chute failed to open has released amazing footage of his near-death plummet filmed by a camera attached to his helmet.”Everyone says your life flashes before you eyes but for me…it didn’t really happen,” Michael Holmes told British television station ITN in an interview accompanying his video.”I was just frustrated that this was the way I was gonna die and that was it,” he said.Holmes, 25, made headlines around the world after surviving the fall during a routine jump over New Zealand’s Lake Taupo on December 13, 2006. A camera attached to his helmet captured his plummet, which was aired in New Zealand on Monday.At 4,000 feet Holmes discovered his main parachute would not open. The reserve also did not work properly.
Holmes’ camera shows him checking his altitude meter as he struggles to turn over onto his back to see what the problem is.
In the final seconds of his fall, Holmes waves goodbye and yells “bye,” before the chilling image of his shadow growing larger beneath him fills the screen. The screen then goes black.
A thorn bush broke Holmes’ fall.
A second camera attached to a fellow parachutist also captured the fall and what happened after Holmes landed. It shows Holmes, looking like a ragdoll spinning wildly, plummeting toward the lake.
When parachutist Jonathan King located Holmes, conscious and breathing, in the bush, he could be heard frantically asked him: “You ok?”
“No,” Holmes answers.
Ouch? That’s the first thing in my mind. But he lives and below is some amazing video.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5628528312427222589Tags: Interesting, News, Oddities, Video, Weird
