Skydiving miracle: Man falls two miles, survives

[Cannikin]

Spinning violently out of control as he fell toward Earth and an almost-certain death at hundreds of miles per hour, skydiver Michael Holmes had a split second to consider his demise when his parachute and a reserve failed high above New Zealand in December.

Holmes' harrowing escape from death, desperate farewell, wave goodbye and hard landing in a blackberry bush were captured by the helmet-mounted cameras he and fellow skydiving instructor Jonathan King donned Dec. 13 before jumping from a plane at 14,000 feet — more than two miles up.

Holmes cut away the main chute, and pulled the cord for the reserve chute. When that didn't work, there was nothing left for Holmes to do but think of something to say into the helmet camera. “I thought, ‘Oh, I've got a camera on my head. Say something,’ ” Holmes recalled.

In hindsight, Holmes realizes that “I'm dead. Bye” didn't really cover everything the British citizen wanted to say to his family and friends. King told TODAY's Matt Lauer that he, too, thought Holmes was a goner.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17113222/

[MichiganVote]

1. I saw that on the news, boy was that weird

[SeattleGirl]

2. Amazing story, but I had a hard time watching the video. Made me

feel dizzy (but yeah, imagine what the skydiver felt!).

[RevolutionaryActs]

3. That is insane.

:wow:

[Suich]

4. I just watched the video on Olbermann.

It's hard to believe his only injury was a broken ankle!

:hi: