but his survival instinct does. i thought i could climb back up. i was in a 100-mile-an-hour wind blast. i didn t have leverage. the only person left in the plane is the pilot. he can t leave the controls. as andy dangles 11,000 feet up with no one to help him, his dad and friends land safely on the ground, where don vick is working desperately to rescue his friend. we knew that the odds of someone surviving what andy was going through were possibly not good. but don isn t giving up hope, yet. it just wasn t an option for andy to perish. it wasn t going to happen. he calls andy s dad into his office to run through the rescue options. we talked about the different angles of the attack of the aircraft, turning it in different directions, to see if we could dislodge andy. we tried that. it doesn t work. andy still hangs under the plane, frantically trying to save himself from death, high above the earth. there was one time where i actually got my fingertips on to the ste
shows enormous strength, tucking his legs up, contorting himself into a fetal position and bracing for the worst. and then he struck the ground. that s when you quit breathing. a cloud of dust, then we all rush the aircraft. even though i was running flat out to see andy after the plane touched down, i was apprehensive about getting there. i didn t think anybody could survive that. but as don and andy s dad reached the now stopped plane, against all odds i opened my eyes. my first words to them were, god, i m lucky. yeah, he was. it was incredible. andy s rushed to the hospital and miraculously, doctors find no major injuries. he s released and walks out with only minor scrapes and bruises. one lucky guy indeed. amazingly, he s back skydiving just three weeks later. people say live every day
she remains in critical care for seven days. my first memory after the accident is waking up in hospital and looking over my shoulder and seeing my dad sitting in a chair in the corner of the room. i was very relieved to see him sitting there. doctors tell her it will be a long road to recovery. it could take up to three years for her brain to heal. but after two weeks in the hospital, she s free to head home to new zealand. it s there that she watches the tape of her accident for the first time. when i saw the footage, i thought it was very violent andç i was quite surprised i didn t break any bones. quite surprised. i think the problem is that it being very windy up there and all the powder had been swept off the peaks of the mountain and the line i was skiing, it was very, very slick. and i think i was just very
up. i was in a 100-mile-an-hour wind blast. my parachute weighs 35 pounds. i didn t have leverage. the only person left in the plane is the pilot. he can t leave the controls. as andy dangles 11,000 feet up with no one to help him, his dad and friends land safely on the ground, where don vick is working desperately to rescue his friend. we knew that the odds of someone surviving what andy was going through were possibly not good. but don isn t giving up hope, yet. it just wasn t an option for andy to perish. it wasn t going to happen. he calls andy s dad into his office to run through the rescue options. we talked about the different angles of the tack of the aircraft, turning it in different directions, to see if we could dislodge andy.s/ we did try that. it doesn t work. andy still hangs under the plane, frantically trying to save himself from death, high above the earth. there was one time where i actually got my fingertips on to the step.
i remember joking around about jumping out and landing in somebody s swimming pool. the day couldn t be going any better. andy, his dad and his friends have made two successful jumps and for their third run, they decide to try something a little different. they will do a four-way jump, locking arms and leaving the plane together. i was the one giving the count so we could leave together. to do that, i had one foot on the step. my right foot was hanging free. the plane races up to 11,000 feet and levels off above the ç jump zone. as i gave the count, we all pushed off. and my left foot basically remained in place on the step. and my head was backwards toward the ground. everything was upsidedown. a piece of andy s jumpsuit gets snagged on the step, on a piece of metal. fear doesn t set in just yet, but his survival instinct does. i thought i could climb back