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I jumped from a plane, my parachute failed, I hurtled towards earth feeling calm

At 4,000ft, Jordan Hatmaker pulled the string and realised something was very wrong. With the speed of her descent increasing, she braced herself for impact

At most, she thought she might break a leg – jeopardising her plans to climb to Mount Everest Base Camp three days later, a trip that had been a goal of hers for a couple of years. The paramedics cut off my rig and tried to put me on a backboard gurney, but it was the most excruciating pain you could ever feel in your entire life.” When an air ambulancehelicopter arrived, she didn’t realise at first that it was for her. Hatmaker had only experienced one less-than-perfect deployment previously, when her main parachute had twisted, but she knew how to correct it by performing bicycle kicks in the air.

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