Posted by Chinenye on Tue 08th Sep, 2026 - tori.ng
A routine group skydive turned into a terrifying fight for survival when a sudden midair collision left a 35 year old instructor unconscious thousands of feet above the ground.
(Holly Was Left With a Broken Leg. Photo Credit: The Mirror)
Skydiving instructor Holly Wiffen, 35, had a terrifying brush with death when another diver kicked her in the head during a group jump last month, causing her to pass out thousands of feet in the air.
Holly, a dental therapist from Devon, was taking part in a tracking jump a type of dive where participants fall horizontally to move faster above Langar airfield near Nottingham on August 7.
The group had jumped from 12,000 feet when another skydiver collided with her, his leg hitting her head.
The impact knocked her unconscious.
As Holly fell helplessly at 150 mph without deploying her parachute, a fellow skydiver tried to reach her but couldn't get to her in time.
He managed to pull his own parachute at 3,000 feet above the ground.
Holly, however, didn't crash into the ground as she should have she hit a conifer tree instead, which likely saved her life.
She has no memory of the fall itself.
Holly recalled waking up on the ground beneath the tree and remembered that somewhere around 1,000 feet, she must have pulled her ripcord.
Her backup parachute opened automatically, but because she was so low and moving so fast, it created a dangerous "downplane" effect that actually sped her up from 40 to 50 mph.
Despite falling near buildings, power lines and a main road, Holly walked away with a fractured spine, a broken left leg, and heavy bruising.
She said that without the tree cushioning her fall, she wouldn't have survived.
Holly is determined to skydive again, though she acknowledges the dangers two of her friends from a local Devon airfield have died in skydiving accidents over the past two years.
😱 WATCH IT IF YOU DARE. A SKYDIVER GETS KNOCKED OUT COLD AND PLUMMETS 10,000FT WITH NO CHUTE OPEN… AND WALKS AWAY ALIVE! 🪂
— J Stewart (@triffic_stuff_) September 7, 2026
A skydiver gets knocked UNCONSCIOUS in mid-air and then drops 10,000ft with no parachute open. Her fellow jumpers can only watch, helpless, as she… pic.twitter.com/8AcObCurxS