Aussie Skydiver’s Harrowing Jump Stuns Internet After Parachute Snags on Plane

The other night, my wife and I were watching Point Break (with Rifftrax commentary, which made it way more fun) and my favorite part — not counting how one guy's bare ass is a key piece of evidence at multiple points in the movie — was when Swayze and Keanu go skydivinghttps://www.outkick.com/category/skydiver, freefall for like five-and-a-half minutes, and join hands to make a "speed star."

EXTREME!!!!!

But not all skydiving jaunts end with a speed star; some end with what has to be one of the most horrifying viral videos I've seen in quite some time.

A skydiver in Queensland, Australia, probably thought this was going to be a routine jump out of a Cessna at 15,000, but things went sideways the second he leaped out of the fuselage. 

According to Fox News Digital, the Australian Transportation Safety Bureau later said that this was because the skydiver's "reserve handle snagged on the aircraft's flap, resulting in deployment of the reserve parachute."

The reserve parachute opened when it wasn't supposed to and snagged on the plane, leaving him dangling thousands of feet in the air.

Crikey. You call that a skydiving mishap?

This is a skydiving mishap.

The skydiver had to cut himself free and, fortunately, landed safely with only minor injuries.

Having that knife on him saved the day. I know that's pretty standard practice when it comes to skydiving, but it always kind of breaks my brain. I mean, my entire life, I've been told that walking too fast while carrying scissors is like the most dangerous thing you can do.

Yet, the safest thing you can do is hurl yourself out of a plane several miles in the air with a knife on you.

Weird how that works.

However, once freed from the plane, the skydiver still had quite the harrowing trip back to terra firma after the main parachute's lines got tangled upon being deployed.

"The main parachute fully inflated with line twists, and after initially turning right, commenced a rapid left turn," the ATSB said. "After several rotations, (the skydiver) grabbed and pulled on the right brake line above the line twists to arrest the turn. 

"The parachute stopped turning, and (the skydiver) was able to unwind the line twists and release the left brake toggle. Passing about 8,000 ft, the main parachute lines fully unwound from the reserve parachute lines and functioned normally for the remainder of the descent."

Yeah. I think I'm just going to keep doing what I've been doing and leave my feet planted here on the nice, solid ground.