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An Oklahoma mother-of-two plunged to her death during a freak solo skydiving accident after she got stuck in a spin and hit the ground, sustaining life-threatening injuries.
Heather Glasgow, 44, had jumped several times with a partner, but was on her first solo jump at the Adventure Skydiving Center in Sallisaw when disaster struck.
Horrified witnesses said her parachute deployed but began spinning uncontrollably in the air and she was unable to recover. She was rushed to a hospital and died shortly after.
Sallisaw Police said ‘an unknown issue arose during the skydive’ and that they were investigating and working with the FAA and the Oklahoma Medical Examiner’s Office to determine a cause for the incident.
The FAA said in a statement that it is investigating the packing of the main and reserve parachutes, while local authorities are in charge of other aspects of the investigation.
The 44-year-old victim, Heather Glasgow of Poteau was at the Adventure Skydiving Center in Sallisaw on Saturday afternoon ready for some thrill seeking adventure before the tragic fall that happened near the Arkansas state line about 150 miles east of Oklahoma City
Glasgow was filmed in a prior jump. Before the skydive, when the instructor asked: ‘Are ready to jump out of an airplane?’ …. ‘Why would you want to do that.’ She smiled and raised her arms up and said: ‘Life… life’
Witness to the fatal fall, Roland Preston was driving along Interstate 59 when he witnessed the terrifying scene. ‘The body that was on that parachute was just spinning in circles, and nothing was going on.
He told KFOR News the body he saw was ‘completely sideways,’ and claimed ‘they were already unconscious in the air.’
‘If they would have been responsive, they would have been kicking their legs and would have been trying to fight with their arms to control the parachute,’ Preston said.
He added: ‘It bothered us so badly. I wanted to be able to do something for the individual but there was nothing that I could do at all except call 911. There is no way that individual could have lived through that.’
He was rattled by the sound he heard when Glasgow hit the ground. ‘Just hearing the thud, the distinct thud when the person hit – it was traumatizing.’
Preston told the news outlet that he had never heard of an issue at Adventure Skydiving Center before Saturday’s tragedy.
Before Saturday’s tragic fall, Glasgow had gone on a tandem jump – when a skydiver is connected to an instructor – and had attended two first time jump classes. she took the courses and jumps at the same facility where she perished.
Glasgow’s devastated relative, Valori Slaughter, told Oklahoma 4 News that her cousin went skydiving at the same center about six weeks ago and spoke about how it gave her pleasure amid some hardships she was facing.
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‘She [Glasgow] had just been going through some things and she was like, “No, I need to do something for me,” Slaughter said. ‘She needed to feel alive and be alive.’
Loved ones described her as a ‘beautiful soul.’
‘Heather had an infectious laugh that she would call and she would just have you in stitches and she’s always full of life, and she’s tenacious,’ Slaughter said.
‘She didn’t have quit in her. She had all sorts of things that would go on and she has some hardships that just continue. It just felt like her whole life was hardship after hardship after hardship, and she just didn’t have quit in her like she was determined.
‘She wasn’t just determined to survive. She was determined to survive with a smile on her face.’
Glasgow chats with the instructor before her tandem skydive previous to her fatal jump
Glasgow waits in anticipation as she is high in the skies gearing up for her previous jump
The location where Saturday’s skydiving tragedy took place in Sallisaw, OK
Glasgow seen here in this undated photo with her two sons and a friend or family member
Weeks before her death, a video shows Glasgow during a prior jump at the same facility – Adventure Skydiving Center – sharing her enthusiasm before the tandem jump as she was covered in gear from head to toe.
‘Are you ready to jump out of an airplane?’ the instructor asked. ‘Why would you want to do that.’
She smiled and said: ‘Life,’ as she raised her hands, ‘Life.’
After the jumped ended Glasgow was full of giggles and overjoyed. The instructor asked her what was her favorite part- the freefall or the parachute. She replied: ‘the parachute… all day!’
Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk
