A soldier husband was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after his skydiving wife’s parachute failed to open during skydive.
The woman was “miraculously survived” and fortunate to avoid death only because her reserve chute deployed just in time to stop her crashing against the ground below.
The experienced parachutist Victoria Cilliers, 39-year-old triggered her main parachute at 4,000 ft but it did not open up which results in multiple serious injuries including a broken collarbone, broken ribs, a broken leg and spinal injuries.
Her South African-born husband Emile, 35, an instructor with the Royal Army Physical Training Corps was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder but was later released on bail.
Concerned fellow skydivers had alerted police that the chute has been tampered with. And police investigation found evidence that ‘slinks’ – which connect the jumper’s harness to the canopies– had been deliberately removed. Without them a parachute cannot act properly.
Detective Inspector Paul Franklin said: “This woman would have been dead if her chute hadn’t partially opened; this meant her descent was slowed enough for her to survive the fall.
”However, we were alerted to concerns over what had happened by the parachute club and as a result instigated an investigation.
“This woman survived this fall miraculously but despite her experience she very nearly lost her life.”