Skydiver lives through two mile plunge after hitting power lines

A skydiver who plummeted two miles after her main and reserve parachutes failed to open escaped death when she landed on some defunct power lines.

Christy McKenzie suffered only a hairline fracture of her pelvis following a terrifying 120mph plunge from 11,500ft.

As she recovered in hospital yesterday, Miss McKenzie, 23, said the accident would not put her off jumping again.

'It all happened so fast,' she said. 'I hit the ground really hard and I was kind of waiting to die. Then the pain set in and I knew that I was alive, but wasn't sure how badly I had been injured.'

The South African finance executive, who is a member of the Johannesburg Skydiving Club, was attempting her 112th jump when she realised in horror that her main parachute had not opened.

With her body spinning out of control, she tugged at her reserve chute, which also malfunctioned.

As time ran out before she hit the ground, she struggled to untangle her lines, without success. 'It appears that a lot more lines had snapped and the tangle was keeping the parachute in place,' she said. 'By now I was in a spiral heading to the ground.'

But yards from impact, Miss McKenzie hit the out-of-use power lines, which broke the fall and saved her life.

Paramedics took her to hospital but her only injuries, apart from the damage to her pelvis, were bruises.

Her family have been with her in hospital since she was admitted on Sunday afternoon, but her fiancÈ David, a pilot, is away in West Africa.

Vana Gulliver, an instructor at Christy's skydiving club, said a reserve parachute malfunction was 'incredibly rare'.

'We have never heard of that before,' she added. 'I wouldn't like to say she is lucky to be alive, but she's lucky she did not break many more bones.'

Miss McKenzie's teammate Johan Mulder said: 'It's extremely, extremely rare, almost unheard of, that there are malfunctions in reserve parachutes.'

The equipment has been sent to the manufacturers to investigate why it failed.

Five months ago, the 24-year-old daughter of newscaster Carol Barnes was killed in a similar incident in Melbourne.

Clare Barnes, an experienced skydiver, died after she became tangled in her parachutes during a 14,000ft jump.