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Skydiver's parachute malfunction caught on helmet camera

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Published in Weird News

OKLAHOMA CITY (UPI) -- A skydiver delivering a game ball to an Oklahoma soccer game was wearing a video camera when he had to cut his parachute free and switch to a reserve chute.

Daniel Herndon was skydiving Tuesday into Oklahoma City's Taft Stadium to deliver the game ball to a soccer match when he deployed his chute and immediately noticed the lines were tangled.

"Very rare but it can happen when it opens, it can open up in a line twist," Herndon told KTUL-TV.

"I'm like, I can't believe this is happening," he said. The parachute started spinning and so now I'm vertical or horizontal with the ground.

"About three to five seconds trying to get it to unravel and it's still getting worse, that's the point when you have to decide it's not getting any better I'm getting too low, I need to go to my reserve," said Herndon, a veteran of more than 1,600 jumps.

Herndon's helmet camera footage, which he posted to Facebook, shows him cutting through the lines to ditch the tangled parachute before deploying his reserve.

 

The skydiver safely landed on the soccer field and delivered the game ball.

"Your life is saved, but at a price," he said, explaining the price was his $2,500 parachute that floated away to parts unknown.

Herndon said he is hoping the parachute, last seen floating toward Will Rogers Park, will turn up somewhere.

"It's green, blue, and white with white lines attached to it," he said.


Copyright 2016 by United Press International

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