HE plunged 3 048m from the sky and has lived to tell the tale. Seventeen-year-old Henco van Wyk, a skydiver from Mossel Bay, is recovering in a Cape Town hospital after slamming into the ground without a functional parachute while skydiving on Sunday.
It is believed that Henco’s main parachute failed to open properly and, when he deployed the reserve parachute, it got tangled with the main one.
The heavy impact injured his back and legs, but his family were relieved to hear yesterday that any danger to his spine had “been averted” and that he had not suffered head injuries.
He is set to undergo further surgery on a leg on Monday.
His father Henk van Wyk said his son was able to communicate properly and was concerned about his Grade 11 exams.
“But we reassured him about that because it is not the priority at the moment,” his father said.
The Outeniqua High pupil, a boarder at the George school, lives in Great Brak River.
Henco took up skydiving in February. He had since completed 40 jumps and earned his A-licence, meaning he was qualified to free-fall without a static line.
His father, who was in Mpumalanga at the time, said he rushed home as soon as he heard news of the fall.
But Henco’s mother, who was at the scene, watched as her son tumbled more than 3km from the sky at the Mossel Bay airfield. That’s equal to the length of about 30 rugby fields.
“His mother was very shocked, but she is doing a lot better now that he has had the operation,” Henk van Wyk said.
He said the operation was “complicated”, which was why Henco had been transferred to a Cape Town hospital.
Henco’s father is the owner of Skydive Mossel Bay.
In an earlier statement, Van Wyk described his son’s mishap as a “pilot-chute in tow malfunction”.
Henco had tried to release the main parachute, but the mechanism failed and the crumpled parachute would not cut away to make space for the reserve parachute.
“When he activated his reserve, the situation worsened as the main pilot chute got entangled with his reserve parachute,” his father said.
HORROR CHUTE FAILURE: Henk van Wyk with his son Henco who was badly injured in a skydiving accident.
The parachute opened at 1 067m.
“This caused his reserve parachute to partially collapse and induced a high-speed spin,” he said.
Henco landed “very hard” and sustained several fractures – mainly to his right leg and back.
Henco was initially taken to ICU at Life Bay View Private Hospital in Mossel Bay. Two days later he was transferred to a private hospital in Cape Town for special treatment for his spinal injuries. His parents are expecting a full recovery. An emergency services ambulance was on the scene within 15 minutes of the fall, his father said.
Coincidentally a paramedic who attended to Henco had also attended to Henk van Wyk after a skydiving incident 15 years ago.
In 1999 a hard landing damaged his hip and pelvis. – Additional reporting by Janine Oelofse
- IOL/Mossel Bay Advertiser
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