A tragic incident unfolded in Brazil when a 21-year-old woman fell to her death during a rope-jumping event, allegedly due to the failure of three men to secure a safety cord. This information comes from the Associated Press.
On June 13, Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas was launched from Ponte do Esqueleto bridge in the municipality of Limeira, São Paulo, Brazil, according to the AP. She fell about 131 feet before a helicopter was called to rescue, according to Brazilian outlet g1 in reporting translated from Portuguese to English via Google.
Heart-wrenching footage of the accident, capturing the shocked reactions of bystanders, has been widely shared on social media platforms.
The video shows the three men positioning the woman, de Freitas, in a “Superman” stance—arms spread wide and legs extended—before sending her off a platform into a 130-foot descent.
Another angle of the video reveals a critical detail: a long safety rope lying unused on the ground near the men’s feet.
Following the incident, authorities claimed that the event’s organizers did not have the required regulatory approval to conduct the rope-jumping activity.
“It was a team there that wasn’t regulated, they didn’t even have authorization to be there,” Delegate Andrea Dantas Levy told Brazilian outlet g1 in reporting translated from Portuguese to English via Google. “They ended up organizing this event. And this fatality happened today, in my perception, due to a failure to verify and supervise the placement of the rope on the victim’s jump.”
Six people were questioned by police following de Freitas’ death, a spokesperson from the São Paulo government told People.
Three were charged with homicide with implied malice, a police officer told g1.
“The safety equipment was not properly secured at the time of the jump,” police said in a statement to AFP, according to CBS News. “The victim did not survive the fall.”
Defense attorneys for the three men told g1 that all are experienced operators and that de Freitas’ death marked the first fatality in years.
Before her death, as she prepared for the jump, de Freitas allegedly joked on her Instagram Stories, according to O Globo, “Who was the crazy person who let me jump off a bridge?”
After rushing to the scene, de Freitas’ fiancé reportedly became sick and had to be hospitalized.
Rope jumping and bungee jumping are both extreme sports that entail jumping off high platforms and into free fall. Unlike bungee jumping, however, rope jumping sends participants swinging through the air rather than bouncing upward.
Spokespeople from the São Paulo State Governor’s Office, the São Paulo Public Security Secretariat and the São Paulo Military Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Oxygen.