Yeah- who would jump out of a perfectly good airplane?
AIRBORNE! ;)
Posted on 01/08/2012 11:45:27 AM PST by rawhide
An Aussie daredevil has somehow survived after a cord snap during her bungee jump over the Zambezi River – sending her plunging into the crocodile-infested waters.
Erin Langworthy plummeted 111m from the Victoria Falls bridge, on the border of Zimbabwe and Zambia, on New Year’s Eve.
The 22-year-old luckily survived the impact despite blacking out and was forced to swim through rapids populated with crocs – with her feet still tied.
“It felt like I had been slapped all over,” the student told Australia's Channel 9 News.
“I landed with my legs tied and then had to swim to the Zimbabwe side [of the river] through the rapids.
Home News Weird World Bungee jump rope snaps: Watch Aussie's miracle escape from fall into crocodile-infested waters By Rob Leigh 8/01/2012 Decrease font size Increase font size Erin Langworthy was lucky to survive the 111m drop An Aussie daredevil has somehow survived after a cord snap during her bungee jump over the Zambezi River – sending her plunging into the crocodile-infested waters.
Advertisement >> Erin Langworthy plummeted 111m from the Victoria Falls bridge, on the border of Zimbabwe and Zambia, on New Year’s Eve.
The 22-year-old luckily survived the impact despite blacking out and was forced to swim through rapids populated with crocs – with her feet still tied.
“It felt like I had been slapped all over,” the student told Australia's Channel 9 News.
“I landed with my legs tied and then had to swim to the Zimbabwe side [of the river] through the rapids.
Erin plummets from the Victoria Falls bridge, above, and the moment her rope snapped, below
“It was quite scary because a couple of times the rope actually got caught on some rocks or debris.
“I actually had to swim down and yank the bungee cord out of whatever it was caught on to make it to the surface,” she added.
When she made it to rocks, her rescuers rolled her on her back.
She said: “All the water I inhaled meant I couldn't breathe and I made them roll me on to my side and that's when I started coughing up water and blood.”
Southern Province police commissioner Brenda Muntemba told reporters that Ms Worth was treated at Victoria Falls clinic in Zimbabwe before being evacuated to South Africa.
“It’s definitely a miracle I survived,” she smiled
Video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRbkAT3-ooo
Maybe they invented the modern cord but they sure as he** didn't invent the "sport"(I use the term loosely). They original "bungee" jumpers were natives of a particular area(I forget exactly where)that were highlighted in one of the magazines back in the day(late 60s early 70s). They would use vines tied to a tree. each jumper had to measure the vine and clear the area under the tree of rocks and other debris. The idea was to make their heads just touch the ground when they reached the end of the vine. The vine was tied to one ankle, they would climb the tree tie the vine to a branch and then jump. If all went well their heads would just brush the ground and they would be ok, vine too long would mean a broken neck or crushed skull, too short meant they were cowards and they would be run out of the tribe. Each teen age boy had to do at least one successful jump in order to be called a man of the tribe.
Those people made today's jumpers, with their elastic lines pulling them up way above the surface, look like whimps, stupid whimps, but whimps just the same.
After the article on the natives was published in a national magazine some fool started what we know today as bugee jumping.
I think I saw these guys a while ago on a bridge in the South East that they open to bungie jumping once a year. On that show, the cord looked substantial, they weigh the jumpers and calculated stretch, it looked like they knew what they were doing. As opposed to some guys I saw within a year or two and it looked like a bunch of stoners, the cable didn't looked well engineered and from what I saw, the level of detail for safety wasn't there.
As for the tow truck type backup, are you saying that the backup was basically a non stretching rope? Can you imagine falling far and the bungie breaks and the tow line takes over, and rips you in half. Maybe I'm not understanding what you said. Do they use a second bungie line like a tow truck has a backup? That would work.
They got out of the business when cheap cord makers undercut their rates too much, and started telling their customers their level of safety cost too much.
They told their customers that proper safety was too much? The operertors (customers of the bungie maker) or the customers on the end of the bungie rope? Hey, if you get a warning that they think proper safety is to expensive and you sign a waver, oh well when it fails.
Some of the guys look a little bit excited by the danger. Ha ha ha.
The cord probably broke under strain, which means it had absorbed some of the energy from her fall. She probably didn’t hit the water all that hard.
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She is lucky.
Years ago, I was stuck on an island in the Zambezi, awaiting pickup. I was with two other guys and all we had for protection was a .22 rifle. There was a slight depression on one side which was protected from the incredibly swift current. I went in up to my thighs, then scurried back to the islet. It wouldn’t do to get caught up in the current and carried downriver to the Kariba Dam. That story would look cool on your gravestone. I didn’t catch any dread diseases. We were picked up without incident, although a herd of hippos broke the water very near our boat had me terrified that we’d tip over into the croc infested waters.
yeah and I know why you looked like that too. (shudder)
Afraid of falling...even talking about bungee jumping has me anxious!
Yeah- who would jump out of a perfectly good airplane?
AIRBORNE! ;)
Whatever it absorbed prior to the snap, it gave her 4 seconds to gain 88 mph from the speed at which it held her.
I saw a program where the narrator claimed they did it to scare evil spirits out of themselves. It was a television news program, so I cannot ensure this information is accurate.
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