First time solo skydiver dangles from powerlines in California for nearly an hour as rescue crew de-energizes the electric grid to safely untangle her
- A skydiver became trapped in power lines in Southern California Monday
- The power lines were live but were briefly shut down to save the woman
- An instructor said she’s ‘very lucky she walked away basically without a scratch’
A skydiving student in Southern California somehow managed to completely overshoot the airport where she was set to land and wound up tangled in live power lines.
The incident happened Monday in Lake Elsinore, a city in Riverside County, and the woman who was training to skydive solo was not injured at all.
Riverside County firefighters were called in to assist and briefly shut off the power lines in order to climb up and detangle the rookie skydiver.
‘She basically overflew the entire airport,’ Skydive Elsinore general manager Josh Hall said Monday. ‘Luckily she’s fine; obviously it could have been a lot worse.’
After she was rescued, the woman who declined to give her name told NBC4 Los Angeles: ‘I don’t know if I’m going to jump again. Probably not.’
A skydiving student in Southern California somehow managed to completely overshoot the airport where she was set to land and wound up tangled in live power lines
After she was rescued, the woman who declined to give her name told NBC4 Los Angeles: ‘I don’t know if I’m going to jump again. Probably not’
https://youtube.com/watch?v=z00Whn7W-Es%3Frel%3D0%26showinfo%3D1%26hl%3Den-US
One witness who spoke with KCAL said they were shocked to see the woman acting so calm considering the weight of the situation.
‘She was just up there chilling, which was surprising because that’s pretty scary,’ witness Jose Olea said.
‘We heard a pop,’ witness Eddie Guillen told NBC4.
‘We didn’t see anything at first, then saw her stuck up there. Then we saw her moving and thought, “Oh my gosh, she’s still alive,”‘ Guillen continued.
Battalion Chief Jeff Roberts with Cal Fire said he isn’t sure how the woman managed to avoid being electrocuted.
Firefighters told media they had to wait about 40 minutes for the power to be cut.
First responders then used an aerial ladder to reach the trapped parachutist.
Once pulled from the power lines, she was evaluated at the scene by medics.
The unidentified woman told the outlet she was attempting to miss one power line near the intersection of Corydon Road and Garden Street and it ended up backfiring.
‘So I was trying to miss that power line, then I turned a hard right and then I went into the other power line,’ she said.
Hall said he still doesn’t understand how the woman ended up in the area, however.
‘From what it sounds like, she just got confused,’ Hall said. ‘She basically flew her parachute into an area where she shouldn’t.’
The woman – whose name has not been released – is in the Accelerated Free Fall program, which trains students to become certified to skydive without a tandem instructor.
Monday’s skydive was the first solo dive for the skydiving student, Hall said.
The Skydive Elsinore general manager also described the student as ‘very lucky she walked away basically without a scratch.’
Firefighters told local media they had to wait about 40 minutes for the power to be cut in order to avoid electrocution during the rescue
First responders then used an aerial ladder to reach the trapped parachutist
The unidentified woman told the outlet she was attempting to miss one power line near the intersection of Corydon Road and Garden Street and it ended up backfiring
‘So I was trying to miss that power line, then I turned a hard right and then I went into the other power line,’ the woman said
Skydive Elsinore general manager Josh Hall said the student was ‘very lucky she walked away basically without a scratch’
One witness who spoke with KCAL said they were shocked to see the woman acting so calm considering the weight of the situation
Monday’s skydive was the first solo dive for the skydiving student, Hall said
Battalion Chief Jeff Roberts with Cal Fire said he isn’t sure how the woman managed to avoid being electrocuted
‘She was just up there chilling, which was surprising because that’s pretty scary,’ witness Jose Olea said
Hall said instances like this are ‘very rare’ and said the business takes more than 100,000 flights a year.
At this time, it’s unknown what caused the Monday incident.
The company plans to release information once the results of the investigation have concluded.
‘We want to apologize to our neighbors for any inconvenience this may have caused,’ the business said in a letter.
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