Differences over skydiver 'push'
2010-03-10 10:57
Port Elizabeth - The boyfriend of a woman from East London who survived a nightmare skydive, told on Tuesday of his terrifying experience as he watched her fall through the air.
Lareece Butler, 25, was in Grahamstown on Saturday for a skydive organised by the EP Skydivers Club. Apparently her parachute only partially deployed.
Butler travelled to Grahamstown from East London on Friday along with her boyfriend, Glen McGuire, 25, for the training and the skydive. She has alleged that a skydiving instructor from EP Skydiving pushed her out of the plane when she changed her mind and decided not to jump.
The company vehemently denies this.
Miracle
According to McGuire, it's a miracle that Butler is still alive.
"When I saw her falling through the air I kept praying that her emergency parachute would deploy."
McGuire said he fell to his knees when Butler hit the ground, far from the intended landing area.
"I ran to her immediately, but they stopped me and said I'd be too traumatised if I saw her like that. It was one of the most terrifying days of my life."
He said an ambulance was at the scene almost immediately to take her to hospital.
McGuire said he lost his temper when Joos Vos, owner of EP Skydiving, asked him, after Butler's fall, whether he still wanted to go through with his jump.
"To think my girlfriend almost died, and he wanted to know whether I still wanted to jump."
Traumatised
Meanwhile Butler's stepfather, Victor Petersen, has said they're incredibly grateful that she survived the incident.
"Her mother, Verona Petersen, is still very traumatised as the incident had been a huge shock for her. Lareece is her only child."
The couple drove from their home in King William's Town when they heard the news about Butler's fall.
He said when his wife spoke to Butler, she said that she'd been pushed out of the plane when she decided not to jump.
Butler is currently recovering well despite severe pain, her cousin, Tessa Botha, said on Tuesday. "She'll have to stay in the intensive care unit for observation for another day or so.
"She sleeps a lot and complains about headaches."
According to Botha, Butler sustained several bone fractures, scrapes, bleeding on the brain, a broken pelvis and concussion, but her organs weren't damaged.
'No fractures'
But Mark Bellingan, national safety and training officer of the Parachute Association of South Africa, said Butler did not sustain any bone fractures.
"After a hospital visit it was also determined that she didn't have bleeding on the brain or any organ damage whatsoever."
Bellingan said on Tuesday these were all rumours spread by a family member.
According to Bellingan, Butler jumped from the plane incorrectly during the skydive on Saturday at EP Skydiving in Grahamstown. Apparently this was the reason that her parachute didn't deploy properly.
"The pilot and another skydiver confirmed this in writing."
'Not pushed'
Regarding the allegation that Butler was pushed from the plane, Bellingan dismissed this as nonsense.
"What would the instructor gain by doing that? The instructors are very experienced."
He added that Butler said she couldn't remember anything about the incident.
Vos said that in the 11 years the company has been in existence, only a single skydiver has been killed. Glen Alex Coleman, 34, died in June 2009 after he landed incorrectly.