Skydiver dangles from plane’s tail when reserve parachute accidentally deploys

Everything that could have gone wrong almost did during a skydive over Australia.

The event was caught on video.

A skydiver was left dangling from the plane’s tail when his reserve parachute deployed my mistake and got caught on the aircraft 15,000 feet above the Earth, The New York Times reported.

The skydiver was the first of 17 who had planned to do formations on Sept. 20.

The person was preparing to jump when the handle of his reserve chute caught the plane’s left wing and deployed. That jumper then hit another person into a free fall. It was the initial jumper, however, who got snagged on a horizontal stabilizer on the plane’s tail.

Luckily, he had a hook knife and was able to cut the 11 lines in less than a minute.

“Carrying a hook knife – although it is not a regulatory requirement – could be lifesaving in the event of a premature reserve parachute deployment,” the Australian Transport Safety Bureau Chief Commissioner Angus Mitchell said in a news release, according to CNN.

As he cut the lines to the reserved parachute, 13 others jumped from the plane as the pilot kept it stable.

The pilot thought at first that the plane had stalled, but was told that a diver was on the tail, so the pilot reduced power, CNN reported.

Eventually, the one who was caught on the tail was able to cut free, deploy the main parachute, and then detangle it from the reserve before landing safely.

The person was an experienced skydiver with more than 2,000 jumps over 21 years. They did have minor injuries to their legs from hitting the plane.

As for the person who was inadvertently sent into a freefall, he had been holding onto the fuselage outside the cabin door and was knocked from the plane. That person landed first and had a minor shoulder injury, according to the Times.

The plane was damaged in the incident, but the pilot was able to land it safely, CNN reported.

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