Did she jump or was she pushed? This is the question family members of a trainee skydiver are asking after
her narrow escape from death on Saturday at the Grahamstown airfield.
Did she jump or was she pushed? This is the question family members of a trainee skydiver are asking after
her narrow escape from death on Saturday at the Grahamstown airfield.
King William’s Town resident Lareece Butler (26) sustained a fractured pelvis and bruising after her parachute got twisted up 1000 metres in the air.
Butler’s aunt Tessa Botha says her niece had told her mother that she had been pushed out the plane by a woman even though she no longer wanted to jump.
Owner of the EP skydiving club Joos Vos says Butler was not pushed. He says the pilot and the two other passengers in the aircraft also deny the allegations.
‘She jumped freely and willingly,’ he says. He says Butler could not remember what had happened when he visited her in hospital on Tuesday. Butler’s boyfriend Glen McGuire says he cannot say what happened, since he was on the ground at the time.
However, he saw the first three divers struggling to open their parachutes. McGuire says he is sure Butler saw the same thing, and changed her mind about jumping.
He says she didn’t jump when it was her turn, and the second time the plane flew over she emerged, spiralling.
He says Butler has gone skydiving before, but he would not call her an experienced diver. Vos says Butler attended static line jump classes on Friday night and Saturday morning where she was instructed in all the facets before attempting the jump.
In a static line jump the parachute is deployed for the diver immediately after the diver leaves the plane. ‘She left the aircraft in an unstable body position which resorted in a portion of the lines becoming entangled in her harness,’ says Vos.
‘The entanglement of the lines created a turn to the one side which required her to perform reserve procedures,’ he says. The reserve procedures entail pulling a handle to release the reserve parachute, which Butler did not do according to Vos.
"She was well trained to do this," says Vos, "she unfortunately did not perform it. I cannot explain why. It is the reason she is in the hospital now".
Vos says Butler rotated in a spinning position towards the ground and medical assistants were on the scene in 10 minutes.
The Parachute Association of South Africa’s national safety and training officer Mark Bellingan says he is busy with an investigation and cannot speculate on what happened until he has all the facts. He says he has not found anything out of the ordinary.
"She had a bad exit, her parachute opened, but she didn’t do canopy control," he says. Jeff Wicks from Netcare 911 says Butler was treated by Netcare medics on the scene and transported in a serious but stable condition to Settlers Hospital in Grahamstown from where she was moved to Livingstone Hospital in Port Elizabeth.
