In December 2006, Michael Holmes jumped out of a plane over Taupo, New Zealand. It was just a routine day for the 25-year-old skydiving instructor who had 7,000 jumps under his belt. However, on this day his parachute failed and Holmes fell 15,000 feet before hitting the ground. Somehow, he survived, placing him in an extremely exclusive club of people. While some people may say what happened to Holmes was a miracle, there are some things you can do to improve your chances. When interviewed, Holmes explained that once he realized his main parachute would not deploy, he did what all skydivers know to do — he pulled his reserve chute. Nothing happened. It was then that Holmes came to terms with the fact that he was likely going to die. He remembers nothing about hitting the ground. It was only when a friend came over that he realized he wasn’t dead, but because of a concussion he was in a state of confusion. It turns out that Holmes had landed right smack on top of a blackberry bush, which was much better than hitting the ground or the lake. If he had hit the water, his lungs would have collapsed and he would have drowned. The blackberry bush had saved his life, but that didn’t mean he was uninjured. He shattered his left foot and punctured a lung. The reason he was spared massive injuries is because he didn’t hit the ground vertically, instead he forced his body to relax and managed to roll forward, deflecting the impact off all the other body parts. Holmes’ advice to anyone else caught in this precarious position? “Don’t give up until you have tried every single option.”
