'Next time I'll be more careful'
2007-09-13 21:30
Johannesburg - A Rhodes student who survived a 30m crash off Table Mountain on Wednesday has vowed to "speed fly" again.
Speaking from his home in Stellenbosch on Thursday, Alexis McNaughton, 19, told Grocott's Mail that he was still walking with a bad limp, but would be back in Grahamstown for the start of the university term on Monday.
And when he's fully recovered he'll be jumping again, only this time he'll be "a little more careful".
McNaughton was attempting to win a competition offering R50 000 for charity by filming himself jumping and parachuting off the mountain. A team of 30 had to be airlifted in to carry out a rescue operation lasting almost nine hours.
McNaughton says cloud cover prevented a Red Cross helicopter from getting near the Platteklip Gorge ledge where he landed. Instead, rescue workers had to be lifted halfway up the mountain and climbed the rest of the way.
No serious injuries
As conditions deteriorated an SA Air Force Oryx helicopter was called, but it too was unable to reach McNaughton.
On the ground, rescue workers strapped him into a stretcher and carried him to the cable car - which re-opened specifically to help ferry him to the ground. McNaughton eventually reached the hospital at 22:00.
Miraculously, he sustained only bruises, mild hypothermia, and two big cracks to his helmet. "It's amazing that I broke nothing, fractured nothing," he said. "It's really a miracle of God."
An experienced skydiver, he has previously jumped off Table Mountain six times using a technique that used to be called speed flying. It's similar to para-gliding because one runs off a cliff with an inflated canopy, says McNaughton, but the chutes are smaller and the aim of the game is speed, not flight time.
He thinks the reason things went wrong is because he didn't build up enough speed to get away from the cliff-face, hitting the rocks below and tumbling to a ledge where he lost consciousness for 20 minutes. When he came to, his phone had been ringing. He answered it and gave rescue workers his co-ordinates using a GPS he always carries when jumping.
The next few hours were the worst, waiting in the icy wind chill to be rescued. He wrapped himself in his canopy to keep warm, and kept talking telephonically to friends below who were anxiously watching the rescue operation.
- SAPA