This was the moment a teenager from China had a brush with death after a botched bungee jump caused her cord to snap.
Bungee jumping is oft looked upon as a gateway into ‘extreme action’ activities, if you can believe that. One experience bungee jumping and you’ll get the buzz to chase the next thrill-inducing, life-endangering activity like jumping out of plane or white water rafting.
Usually bungee is a safe activity with little-to-no consequence, however there are times when a fun experience can go south (quite literally) in the blink of an eye.
Instances such as this; where a 17-year-old girl barely survived after a she fell into river, the unlucky teenager’s bungee cord snapped as she was making her descent from the top.
The heart-stopping moment was captured on video in the Fangshan Mountain, in the capital city of Beijing.
The video captures the moment the 17-year-old jumps off the structure, which is on a cliff. It’s after the third bounce that the cord snaps and she plunges into the river, much to the shock of onlookers.
Luckily she was rescued and taken to hospital where doctors determined she had not suffered any serious injuries.
According to People’s Daily Online, the person in charge of running the bungee jump attraction was promptly fired. However a spokesperson for the company assured the public there was no actual problem with the machine and that the teenager was still tied onto the rope when she dropped into the river.
They put it down to the member of staff who operated the machine – apparently they failed to use it properly, resulting in the cord failing.
While the 17-year-old girl was lucky to walk off with her life intact, this year has already seen a bungee jumping related death.
Vera Mol, who was also 17, died when she misheard heard her bungee jump instructor and fell to her death. She took part in a jump in Cantabria, northern Spain.
The courts determined that her death was caused by miscommunication, due to the fact the instructor had very ‘limited’ English skills, and that he failed to check she was over the age of 18.
