Tangled Parachute: Hurtling to Earth

Two skydivers sign up to perform a complex mid-air routine. But on their practice run, Craig Stapleton and his diving partner Katie are thrust into chaos when one small error leads to a domino effect of crises. With his lines tangled and his parachute malfunctioning, Craig must scramble to fix the situation. But as each emergency measure fails one by one, the ground gets closer and closer. He is spiralling towards a crunching, high-speed collision with the Earth… A Noiser podcast production. Hosted by John Hopkins. Written by Joe Viner | Produced by Ed Baranski | Assistant Producer: Luke Lonergan | Production Assistant: Chris McDonald | Exec produced by Joel Duddell | Sound Supervisor: Matt Peaty | Sound design by Jacob Booth | Assembly edit by Rob Plummer | Compositions by Oliver Baines, Dorry Macaulay, Tom Pink | Mix & mastering: Cody Reynolds-Shaw. For ad-free listening, bonus material and early access to new episodes, join Noiser+. Click the subscription banner at the top of the feed to get started. Or go to noiser.com/subscriptions If you have an amazing survival story of your own that you’d like to put forward for the show, let us know. Drop us an email at [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:02John Hopkins?

  Es un domingo, 10 de marzo de 2013. Mientras el sol se eleva sobre el centro de California, la niebla, que cubre el condado de San Joaquín, se eleva lentamente, revelando un paisaje de la tierra de bosques verdes, jardines de semillas y orígenes de naranja. El cielo es un azul de semillas de maíz, vasto y sin rastro. Excepto por una o dos nubes blancas flotantes y la ocasional forma de una palma.

• 0:32John Hopkins?

  Sin embargo, mirando más cerca, algo más se pone a la vista.

• 0:37John Hopkins?

  Es difícil decir lo que es al principio. Un objeto, que descenderá rápidamente del azul claro, siguiendo algo en su sueño. Lo que sea, el objeto se acerca a la tierra a una velocidad alarmante.

• 0:51John Hopkins?

  Mientras se acerca, se hace posible distinguir los detalles.

• 0:56John Hopkins?

  Los cordones de paralelismo entrelazados, la canopía rota, los brazos desesperados, flotando.

• 1:03John Hopkins?

  Es una persona, caen desde el cielo.

• 1:08Speaker 01

  Estaba atrapado con mi equipo roto, mi paralelismo no volaba, y se trataba de todas las cosas que podía imaginar salir mal. Si tuviera un sistema de luz de cockpit en frente mío, se habrían vuelto rojos.

• 1:23John Hopkins?

  Craig Stapleton, de 51 años, se desbordó con su paralelismo mientras la tierra de California se alza hacia él. En los últimos momentos, ha intentado cualquier medida contraria a la que pudiese pensar, cualquier "¡Aleluya" en el libro, pero nada ha funcionado.

• 1:39John Hopkins?

  Con el viento, un ruido de llanto en sus oídos, Craig mira hacia arriba al desastre entrelazado y agitado por encima de él.

• 1:46Speaker 01

  Realizo que esos dos paralelismos juntos es lo que un muerto ve. No voy a sobrevivir a lo que tengo ahora.

• 1:55John Hopkins?

  Solo hay una forma de que esto termine. Todo lo que Craig puede hacer es esperar a que algo rompa su caída. Quizás un cuerpo de agua, o una canopía de árbol. Pero mientras gira, siempre más bajo, los recorridos de la tierra revelan algo mucho menos perdonante.

• 2:12Speaker 01

  Y estoy pensando, bueno, tal vez estoy sobre algo suave, tal vez algo de agua, y estoy sobre un jardín. Son palos de hierro con estas plantas deslizantes y alambre de acero por todo. Y me doy cuenta de que estoy en problemas profundos.

• 2:35John Hopkins?

  ¿Alguna vez preguntó qué haría cuando un desastre golpeara? Si tu vida dependiera de tu siguiente decisión, ¿podrías tomar la decisión correcta? Bienvenidos a Real Stories de Sobrevivencia. Estas son las historias asombrosas de personas ordinarias que son enviadas a situaciones extraordinarias. Personas forzadas de repente a luchar por sus vidas.

• 2:56John Hopkins?

  En este episodio, nos encontramos con Craig Stapleton de 51 años. Craig es dentista de Sacramento, California. También es uno de los más expertos skydivadores profesionales en América. Un domingo, en marzo de 2013, Craig y su compañero de skydiving, Katie, están practicando una compleja rutina de medio aire cuando un pequeño error lleva a un efecto domino de crisis escalada. Con sus líneas entrelazadas y su paralelismo en funcionamiento, Craig empezará a intentar arreglar la situación, agitadamente atrapando con su equipo mientras se acerca hacia la tierra.

• 3:32Speaker 01

  Estoy tirando esto y llego al punto en que en realidad estoy tratando de mantenerlo con los dientes para que pueda usar las dos manos para liberar este mecanismo. Y eso no funciona.

• 3:44John Hopkins?

  Mientras cada medida de emergencia falla una por una, la tierra se acerca cada vez más. Craig gira hacia una colisión de alta velocidad con la tierra.

• 3:55Speaker 01

  Veo que mis altímetros van bajando y bajando, y eventualmente, incluso mientras estoy jugando con todo esto, me doy cuenta de que probablemente voy a morir, de que soy un muerto.

• 4:05John Hopkins?

  Soy John Hopkins. Del Noiser Podcast Network, esta es Real Stories de Sobrevivencia.

• 4:37John Hopkins?

  Es el 10 de marzo de 2013. Justo fuera de la ciudad de Lodi, en el valle central de California, un auto se acerca al estacionamiento de un pequeño campo de aire privado. Craig Stapleton se desplaza de su vehículo y respira el clima de mañana. El dentista de 51 años mira hacia el cielo y pone notas con satisfacción de que hoy es azul y sin nubes. condiciones ideales. Tiene una bolsa de gafas de atrás y se dirige hacia el hangar.

• 5:09John Hopkins?

  Hay más de 200.000 dentistas en los Estados Unidos, pero muy pocos pueden afirmar que tienen un medalla de campeonato mundial de skydiving entre sus logros. Craig Stapleton lo puede. Con más de 7.000 saltos bajo su gorro, es uno de los más experimentados skydivadores en América. Recientemente, Craig y uno de sus amigos, Katie Hanson, fueron ordenados por una revista para ser fotografiados skydivando mientras se mantienen una bandera estadounidense. Es una rutina compleja, y el plan para esta mañana es hacer algunos saltos de práctica para averiguar cómo conseguir la mejor pista.

• 5:43Speaker 01

  Querían que fuera una cobertura de una revista, y estaban dispuestos a escribirnos un cheque, que si quieres motivar a los skydivadores, así es como lo haces. Mi compañero y yo, Katie, vamos a hacer este salto y nuestro camarero, TJ, iba a filmarlo solo para dar algunas ideas de cómo esto va a funcionar y, ya sabes, qué puede preparar para una buena pista. Así que fue para nosotros, fue como, vamos a salir, vamos a entrar en el avión, vamos a hacer lo que necesitamos hacer y aprender algunas cosas en este salto.

• 6:20John Hopkins?

  Craig, Katie y el camarero TJ se cambian a su equipo de skydiving dentro del hangar. Una vez que están vestidos y listos, empiezan a dirigirse a través de la autopista hacia el avión esperando.

• 6:31John Hopkins?

  Pero mientras hacen su camino a través de la pista, Katie de repente se da cuenta de algo. Se ha olvidado su cuchilla. Una herramienta importante, si raramente usada, en un equipo de saltos de skydiving solo llamada en emergencias.

• 6:46John Hopkins?

  Katie considera salir de nuevo hacia el hangar para tomar la cuchilla, pero Craig interviene.

• 6:51Speaker 01

  Donde saltamos, el avión no te espera. Si no estás allí cuando el avión sube y todo el mundo se mete en el asiento, simplemente te va a dejar sin ti. Así que ella iba a salir de nuevo y tomar su cuchilla, y yo dije, oh, mira, te daré la mía.

• 7:07John Hopkins?

  Craig siempre lleva dos cuchillas en su jumpsuit, y le da una a Katie. Es muy improbable que ninguna de ellas necesite ser usada, pero en este deporte, es mejor no darle ninguna oportunidad.

• 7:19John Hopkins?

  Katie enciende la cuchilla de Craig dentro de su jumpsuit, y el trio continúa hacia el avión.

• 7:26John Hopkins?

  Craig es un californiano nativo, nacido y criado cerca de Sacramento. Su madre y padre fueron ambos profesores de escuela, y recuerda memorias profundas de una childhood activa y aventurista.

• 7:38Speaker 01

  Vivimos un estilo de vida bastante idélico. Mis padres, ya sabes, amaban enseñarnos cosas y tomar nuestros lugares y hacer cosas. Y teníamos esta vida de Brady Bunch, de, ya sabes, hacer cosas y nuestros padres siempre estaban alrededor y mucho apoyo. Así que fuimos muy afortunados. Tuvimos un gran fondo para, para, para crecer.

• 8:03John Hopkins?

  Después de la escuela secundaria, Craig fue a la universidad para estudiar dentología. Fue una carrera que parecía bien adecuada para este joven tranquilo, estudiante y sensible.

• 8:13John Hopkins?

  A 18, la ruta hacia adelante parecía bastante clara para Craig. Hubiera graduado y seguiría para obtener su licencia dental antes de eventualmente abrir su propia práctica.

• 8:22John Hopkins?

  Entonces, un día, algo sucedió que alteró esta trayectoria. Fue su año de primicia en la universidad, la mañana después de una noche pesada. Craig se despertó por su compañero de habitación y un amigo que le presentaron una invitación distinguidamente desagradable para unirse a ellos en una excursión de skydiving impromptu.

• 8:41Speaker 01

  Había estado fuera de una fiesta de fraternidad bastante tarde y no había estado en el cama por mucho tiempo cuando comenzaron a despertarme para ir a hacer esto con ellos. Y kept diciendo, no, déjame dormir. No quiero hacer algo estúpido como eso. Pero eventualmente llegué al punto en que se mantuvieron despertándome. No me iban a dejar dormir. Así que finalmente dije, si me dejas dormir en el auto hacia este lugar, te voy a acompañar.

• 9:17John Hopkins?

  Este octubre, en el Noiser Podcast Network, Los dictadores reyones vuelven. Estamos en la República Dominicana para la historia de Rafael Trujillo. En Short History Of, descubriremos los secretos de la Cumbre Hoover y seguir Mary Shelley, la creadora de Frankenstein y su monstruo. En Real Stories de Sobrevivencia, una aventura moderna de viking mientras un vehículo norteno replicado embarca en una aventura audaz a través del Mar Norte y un hombre es golpeado sin sentido, solo en el extremo superior del mundo. En Jane Austen Stories, Emma continúa con Dame Julie Andrews, y en Sherlock Holmes Short Stories, Holmes y Watson descubren un misterio épico de tesoro oculto y asesinato en el signo de cuatro.

• 9:59John Hopkins?

  Tenga todos estos shows y más pronto y gratis en Noiser Plus.

• 10:10John Hopkins?

  The idea of hurling himself out of a plane at 10,000 feet did not appeal to Craig. Doing so with a hangover was even less inviting. But before he knew it, he was in the backseat of his roommate's car, head slumped against the window as they trundled out to a nearby skydiving center.

• 10:28Speaker 01

  You don't know what things in life change what's gonna happen in your life. You know, you don't wake up and like in the morning, "Oh, I'm gonna do something that's gonna change my life today." Those days are very rare. And so I was barely conscious, not very sober, and being marched through the sign-in process and the payment process and into a classroom. And the next thing I know, I am in a jumpsuit, rolling around in the dirt, practicing our landings. And I was just like, "I don't remember really signing up for this." It just kinda rolled through and the momentum of the day took over.

• 11:10Speaker 01

  And by the late afternoon, there I was in the door of an airplane in flight, crawling my way out of the plane to go jump. And I absolutely loved it. It was an amazing experience. And in fact, after we all three landed from our first jump, we immediately went back in and signed up for a second jump that day. And after two jumps, I was completely hooked. I was thinking this was the best thing I'd ever done in my life.

• 11:48John Hopkins?

  In some respects, skydiving was an unlikely hobby for Craig, who would never have described himself as an adrenaline junkie. On the other hand, certain things in his childhood had quietly laid the groundwork for him to excel at the sport. Not least, the influence of his dad.

• 12:06Speaker 01

  My father had survived being a Marine in the Korean War. And he never, ever, ever talked about it. We have no idea what he went through. He never said a word. So I think in some ways, he was always like, "Just go ahead and do what you need to do. You don't have to be brave all day. You only need to be brave for about 10 seconds." Because getting out the door of a plane, you don't need to be brave all the way. You just need to be brave at the doorway and get out the door, and then you're committed. So in a lot of ways, he kinda helped with that and instilled it's like, "Just, you know, find a way to reach in and do it for 10 seconds."

• 12:47John Hopkins?

  After those first two jumps, the touchpaper was lit. Craig never looked back. He started spending more and more time at the local skydiving center. It was a huge contrast to the staid, stuffy atmosphere of the classroom. The dive center was a hive of energy and dynamism, populated by a ragtag cast of eccentric thrill seekers.

• 13:09Speaker 01

  All of a sudden, I was off going to the drop zone on the weekends rather than studying for dental school. The only people I really knew was my roommate and all these dental students. So meeting a bunch of skydivers was awesome because these people were crazy. And that was kinda the outlet that I needed from my rigorous studies for dental school. If you think you have some friends who are crazy, go out to the drop zone and hang out after closing, and you'll see what crazy really is. So it just drew me to that crowd and lifestyle where, you know, you could jump all day, have a few drinks, sleep in your car at the drop zone. It was pretty Bohemian lifestyle.

• 13:57John Hopkins?

  And it was a lifestyle that he took to immediately. As the years passed, Craig did eventually finish college. He got his dentist's license and joined a practice. He got married, had kids, and settled down in the suburbs. But throughout it all, skydiving remained a constant. Whatever difficulties he was experiencing at work or in his personal life, skydiving provided a release.

• 14:21Speaker 01

  A lot of people, they wind up living what will be termed the quiet life of desperation. Because you lose track of things like, "I wanna go have fun." You take a week off for a holiday or vacation, and that's it. That's all your insanity time is that week. And it's like, no, you can just go crazy every weekend. And going to work on Monday isn't so bad. It makes going in there and working on patients really tolerable.

• 14:52John Hopkins?

  He started leading a double life, pulling teeth during the week, pulling rip cords on the weekends. As he began racking up more jumps, Craig got into competitive skydiving, eventually going on to captain the US national team. They competed annually at the Skydiving World Championships. And after a few years placing as runners-up, Craig and his team finally took home the trophy in 2001.

• 15:19Speaker 01

  We'd gotten second a number of times. And going from second to first at that level alters your life. Because all of a sudden, people wanna do what you're doing. They wanna use your equipment. They wanna be, you know, "I wanna come and learn from you guys." And we were just, we were shocked. It's not like we'd become famous, but we certainly became more in demand.

• 15:47John Hopkins?

  By 2013, Craig has clocked more than 7,000 jumps, making him one of the most experienced skydivers in the country. Thanks to his successes, he has found himself in the rare position of sometimes being paid to skydive, with sponsored jumps and commissions. Looking back on that hungover morning at college when his roommate dragged him out of bed, Craig is struck by the twist of fate that set him on the road he's currently on.

• 16:14Speaker 01

  It's like, you know, you get pulled by a little thread, and that thread moves you onto a completely different path. And you don't realize it until you're on the path going the other direction. And interestingly, from that very first day, I'm the only person that still jumps. My roommate got to do a free fall, his buddy got to do one free fall, and that was it for them. And the guy who didn't wanna go wanted being a lifetime choice.

• 16:50John Hopkins?

  Craig buckles himself into his seat as the plane roars into life and accelerates down the runway. As they ascend, Craig, Katie, and TJ go through some last-minute checks.

• 17:03John Hopkins?

  For all its emphasis on safety procedure and precaution, skydiving remains a dangerous sport, one that requires rigorous attention to detail. In the last 10 years, there have been over 200 skydiving fatalities in the US alone. Most accidents are caused by human error rather than equipment failure, and often involve a more experienced skydiver misjudging a landing. But other factors can also come into play. Parachutes can malfunction. Reserve chutes can become twisted or fail to deploy. In those rare cases, a skydiver is faced with the most terrifying scenario of all: a rapid, uncontrolled free fall.

• 17:45John Hopkins?

  Few ever survive such a thing, but Craig knows someone who has.

• 17:50Speaker 01

  One of my early, early skydiving instructors had survived landing without a parachute in the early 70s. He also broke Evel Knievel's record for the most broken bones and survived. So he was quite the inspiration. He was a lot of fun to hang out with. And he was also a great fountain of knowledge of how to survive things. And his thing was always learn. Always learn what you're doing. Learn the equipment, learn the place where you're jumping, learn the people you jump with. Because you don't know what's gonna save your life.

• 18:24John Hopkins?

  As such, skydivers must equip themselves with as much knowledge as possible in order to avoid excessive reliance on luck. But sometimes they need both.

• 18:35Speaker 01

  You know, you have this bag of luck and this bag of knowledge. And you're hopefully not emptying your bag of luck before you've got enough knowledge in your bag to keep you alive.

• 18:46John Hopkins?

  Craig has been jumping out of planes for long enough to have grown comfortable with the level of risk involved. But there is a danger of becoming too comfortable.

• 18:56Speaker 01

  I had a pretty laissez-faire relationship with death at that point. And we'd had some teammates who'd been killed a few years before. So it wasn't like we were new to the thought. But I was just like, "Ah, you know, you're experienced enough, you're smart enough, you pay attention enough, and you have good teammates. They won't let you get that stupid." That you'll be okay. And the reality is, well, maybe we've been normalizing risk a long time. We're doing a lot of rather risky items, and to us, it just seems routine.

• 19:35John Hopkins?

  After a few minutes, the aircraft reaches the jump altitude of 8,000 feet. Craig, Katie, and TJ ready themselves and their equipment. The jump they're practicing today is called a down-plane flag. It involves two skydivers displaying a flag stretched tightly on a lanyard connected to the two parachute harnesses. It is a highly technical formation that requires perfect precision.

• 20:02Speaker 01

  There's a lot of steps that are involved that are complicated. And if you miss one, it can present a lot of problems. That's why we wanna practice, and we wanna go through things slowly. And we wanna just, no pressure. We just wanna get out and kinda go through this.

• 20:19John Hopkins?

  With TJ poised behind them with his camera, Craig and Katie position themselves on the threshold of the exit door. They both check and double-check that their gear is in order. Then, after one final confirmation that they are both ready to go, they shuffle themselves to the edge of the door, take a deep breath, and hurl themselves into the abyss.

• 20:44Speaker 01

  That's how it all started. It's just, we have this rather demanding jump. It has a lot of complicated gear, and something went wrong.

• 21:00John Hopkins?

  This October on the Noiser Podcast Network. Real Dictators returns. We're in the Dominican Republic for the story of Rafael Trujillo. On Short History of, we'll uncover the secrets of the Hoover Dam and follow Mary Shelley, the creator of Frankenstein and his monster. On Real Survival Stories, a modern Viking adventure as a replica Norse vessel embarks on a daring voyage across the North Sea and a man is struck blind all alone at the very top of the world. In Jane Austen Stories, Emma continues with Dame Julie Andrews. And in Sherlock Holmes Short Stories, Holmes and Watson unpick an epic mystery of hidden treasure and murder in The Sign of Four.

• 21:42John Hopkins?

  Get all of these shows and more early and ad-free on Noiser Plus. It's morning on Sunday, March the 10th, 2013. Eight thousand feet above San Joaquin County, California, three skydivers leap from an open door in the side of a plane. The force of the wind initially sweeps them sideways before the air resistance and the tug of gravity pulls their trajectory into a vertical descent. As the air catches in their chests, it stabilizes the jumpers, allowing them to gain a measure of control. First-time skydivers often expect their stomachs to drop during the free fall.

• 22:27John Hopkins?

  Instead, the upward blast of wind makes it feel as if you're descending on a cushion of air. The landscape spreads out below in a vast mosaic of greens and browns, unfurling to the furthest edges of the horizon. With the cold wind whipping past their ears, the skydivers pull their rip cords to open their parachutes. And that's when everything starts to go wrong.

• 22:54Speaker 01

  Once we got out the door, things just didn't go right. You know, you can have a bad this or bad that, but literally Katie and TJ both had very bad openings, had line twists and spun off. And so even from the get-go, we were having issues. And it kind of compressed our time, it made us hurry a little bit.

• 23:17John Hopkins?

  With a complex stunt like this, timing is everything. Even if it all goes to plan, they will still only have about five minutes in the air before reaching the ground. Craig and Katie steer themselves close together and connect the lanyard to their harnesses. The next stage of the maneuver is to get into down-plane formation. Essentially, both jumpers move apart and then guide their parachutes into a vertical position until one is above the other. The flag is then released from a pouch in the lanyard and unfurls. After connecting the lanyard, Craig and Katie move to separate.

• 24:01John Hopkins?

  But again, things refuse to go smoothly.

• 24:05Speaker 01

  As we pulled apart, I'm going right and Katie kind of got stuck in the wake of my parachute and wound up coming right with me.

• 24:16John Hopkins?

  Nothing is going to plan. Craig and Katie are now too close and are at risk of becoming entangled. They need to get some distance. Katie starts to guide herself away from Craig. But as she does, he spots a potential hazard and takes some preemptive steps to protect himself.

• 24:37Speaker 01

  As that happened, I had also put my foot on the lanyard so that it didn't hit me in the genitalia as it went to tension. I kind of put my foot on it. And as she separated, it actually, the lanyard picked me up and flipped me through my parachute. And that's what started everything.

• 24:58John Hopkins?

  As the lanyard string becomes taut, it effectively catapults Craig straight up into his parachute's risers, the tough nylon straps that connect the canopy to his harness. Suddenly, he is ensnared in a muddle of twisted lines and tangled webbing, his parachute wrapped around itself.

• 25:17Speaker 01

  I snagged one line with my foot, which meant my parachute started spinning and I was stuck with my equipment twisted, my parachute's not flying, and I'm tied to Katie. And it was about all the things I could imagine going wrong. You know, if I had a cockpit light system in front of me, they would have all turned red.

• 25:42John Hopkins?

  Still, experience prepares you for moments like this, and Craig doesn't panic. First things first, unclip the lanyard rope. It's only making matters worse. He starts trying to disconnect the lanyard from his harness, but tumbling towards the earth, the wind roaring past his ears like a bullet train, it's hard to get his bearings.

• 26:05Speaker 01

  The first problem was this lanyard was since it wasn't below me anymore, it was above me, it kept trying to rip my head off, which is very inconvenient. You know, I'm trying to think, I'm trying to do all these things, and something keeps trying to go around my neck and take my head off.

• 26:21John Hopkins?

  He fumbles blindly for the release mechanism, but he can't find it. His pulse quickening, Craig starts trying to alert Katie to his predicament, bellowing over the deafening wind.

• 26:33Speaker 01

  I'm just yelling, Katie, cut me away. Just release this and at least I'll be down to fewer problems.

• 26:41John Hopkins?

  Craig's voice is snatched away by the surging air. But Katie doesn't need to hear what he's saying. She can see the disaster unfolding very clearly. Witnessing her partner tangled in his lines, desperately trying to release the lanyard, she acts swiftly. She releases it from her own harness, disconnecting herself from Craig. Immediately, the two skydivers go flying apart.

• 27:07Speaker 01

  I go spinning off with this flag, still trying to rip my head off and my parachute malfunctioning and me trying to stay calm enough to think of what do I need to do.

• 27:20John Hopkins?

  The fact that he is able to think at all in these circumstances is a product of what skydivers refer to as the duality of time, a kind of warping effect that enables rational thought under maximum pressure.

• 27:34Speaker 01

  Time goes very quickly, but you see things moving slowly. It's like you're in The Matrix or something. It's like you can see the bullet coming at you. Time is going, but your ability to work within it has increased.

• 27:50John Hopkins?

  Though he is careening towards almost certain death, Craig diligently focuses on the puzzle before him. With deft finger work, he starts feeling his way around the straps of his harness, searching again for the lanyard release catch.

• 28:07Speaker 01

  I eventually get to the point where I can get the flag, I find the handle, and I release that. And that stupid flag goes into my stupid parachute.

• 28:19John Hopkins?

  Another disaster. Releasing the lanyard was supposed to help fix the problem. Now it's made it worse. The only remaining course of action is to disconnect his main chute entirely, leaving him with just his reserve. He reaches for the release handle.

• 28:38Speaker 01

  On the skydiving equipment, there's a little handle that you pull that releases your parachute. And all I've got to do is get that malfunction parachute off of me. And I will be down to just dump my reserve and we'll all go find the parts that we released later on after a drink.

• 28:59John Hopkins?

  There is nothing else for it. Craig yanks at the handle. But in the melee, the mechanism has become twisted and his parachute won't disconnect all the way. Giving up, he reaches for his knife so he can simply cut away the malfunctioning equipment. But when he feels in the pocket where he usually keeps it, he finds with a jolt of alarm that there is nothing there.

• 29:23Speaker 01

  And I realize, oh, Katie has it. I have to get my other knife. And I'm spinning so much and helicoptering, I can't get the zipper on my jumpsuit to move down. I am just being spun so rapidly that the zipper's now jammed and I can't get my knife out of that pocket.

• 29:43John Hopkins?

  As he twists towards the earth, spinning like a sycamore seed, Craig catches fleeting glimpses of the fields surging up towards him. Strapped to his wrist is an altimeter, a device that tells him how far he is above the ground by measuring changes in air pressure. Glancing at it, Craig calculates that he still has enough time to try to detach his malfunctioning parachute.

• 30:05Speaker 01

  I still have some altitude to work with and I'm, you know, I'm pulling this thing and I get to the point where I'm actually pulling it, I'm trying to hold it my teeth so I can use both hands to release this mechanism.

• 30:18John Hopkins?

  Craig frantically grapples with the cords and straps, trying to reel in the swirling, flapping canopy. It's like trying to hang laundry in a hurricane. He just can't do it. It leaves him with one option: his reserve. Opening a reserve parachute with his malfunctioning main still on his back is far from ideal. But at this point, what choice does he have? He reaches for the rip cord and pulls.

• 30:47Speaker 01

  My reserve comes off my back nice and clean, starts to open up, and I can feel myself just slowing down. I'm like, oh, man, thank goodness, finally something's gone right. And the reserve fully opens, it starts to fly and it flies right into my malfunctioning main.

• 31:07John Hopkins?

  It's a final stroke of terrible luck, and there's no coming back from this one. The sight of his two parachutes entwined above his head confirms a grim reality.

• 31:18Speaker 01

  I realize that those two parachutes tied up together is what a dead man sees. I am not going to survive what I have got now.

• 31:29John Hopkins?

  In over 7,000 jumps and more than 25 years of skydiving, Craig has never found himself in this position, speeding towards the ground at 30 miles an hour with no functioning parachute.

• 31:41Speaker 01

  I am thinking, well, maybe I'm over something soft, maybe some water. And I am over a vineyard. It is iron spikes with these scraggly plants and concertina wire across everything. And I realize I am in deep trouble. And I realize I'm probably gonna die. You know, I knew this could happen at some point in my life. And I knew the poker hand could come up if I sat at the table. And here I am. And so I talked to God a little bit and said, take care of my two teammates that are gonna watch this. Take care of my family. Take care of my friends, because this is gonna hit the rest of my team kinda hard as well.

• 32:26John Hopkins?

  In the final moments before impact, Craig manages to dredge up some words of wisdom from decades ago.

• 32:33Speaker 01

  I fall back on my original instructor and what he said when he was gonna land without a parachute. And he was like, well, you try and relax. You try and cover all your major arteries and get your arms and legs in. Because anything you stick out is gonna take all the impact and be a major crush injury.

• 32:56John Hopkins?

  This is where experience really counts.

• 33:00John Hopkins?

  Craig tucks his arms and legs into his body and relaxes his joints so as to better absorb the impact. At this late stage, such minor bodily adjustments could make all the difference.

• 33:12Speaker 01

  Even if it's not something that's guaranteed to keep me alive, I'm looking to increase my odds of survival. I don't know if, you know, getting into a position where I can impact the earth is gonna help me. But one, it gave me something to do. And two, if it increased my odds one or 2%, well, that's great. I'll take it. You know, right now I have almost a 0% chance. If I can add a couple of percentage points on, yay.

• 33:40John Hopkins?

  The ground is now close enough for Craig to make out the individual vines planted in rows, the wind rustling the branches of the trees, even the droplets of condensation glittering in the bright morning sunshine.

• 33:53Speaker 01

  I remember coming in and the sun was on that vineyard and it was really pretty. There was dew on everything. And it just looked amazing. And I didn't quite get that thought all the way out of my head. I was like, wow, this is really... And I hit the ground.

• 34:15John Hopkins?

  This October on the Noiser Podcast Network, Real Dictators returns. We're in the Dominican Republic for the story of Rafael Trujillo. On Short History of, we'll uncover the secrets of the Hoover Dam and follow Mary Shelley, the creator of Frankenstein and his monster. On Real Survival Stories, a modern Viking adventure as a replica Norse vessel embarks on a daring voyage across the North Sea, and a man is struck blind all alone at the very top of the world.

• 34:46John Hopkins?

  In Jane Austen Stories, Emma continues with Dame Julie Andrews. And in Sherlock Holmes Short Stories, Holmes and Watson unpick an epic mystery of hidden treasure and murder in The Sign of Four. Get all of these shows and more early and ad-free on Noiser Plus.

• 35:06John Hopkins?

  The San Joaquin Valley is the largest wine-producing region in the state of California, with over 150,000 acres given over to the cultivation of grapes.

• 35:16John Hopkins?

  Typically, the vines are planted in rows between 10 and 12 feet apart. In other wine-producing parts of the world, where grapes are picked by hand, vineyard rows are planted much closer together, between 6 and 8 feet.

• 35:30John Hopkins?

  But here in the San Joaquin Valley, where most of the farming is done on a large industrial scale, the rows are traditionally spaced wide enough for mechanical harvesters to pass between them. It is a minor agricultural detail that might have just spared Craig Stapleton from a gruesome death. When he landed, Craig hit the ground with such force that his body blasted a shallow crater into the soil of the vineyard.

• 35:59John Hopkins?

  But the sharp metal trellises, which could so easily have impaled him, remain undisturbed, mere feet away.

• 36:08John Hopkins?

  The first few seconds after impact, Craig can't be sure whether he did survive the fall or if he is experiencing his final throes.

• 36:16Speaker 01

  I couldn't breathe. I just hurt.

• 36:20Speaker 01

  And I really thought this is like, oh, this is how your brain dies. You know, your body gives out and your brain has a few minutes to process it.

• 36:31Speaker 01

  And so I thought, wow, you know, this is what it's like to die.

• 36:35John Hopkins?

  He is lying face down in the dirt, his bones still reverberating with the force of the impact.

• 36:42John Hopkins?

  The landing knocked the breath from his lungs. But slowly, as the initial shock starts to recede, he manages to suck a thin trickle of air between his clenched teeth.

• 36:55Speaker 01

  And after a little bit of time, I realized, no, I'm breathing. I hurt a lot, so that's always a sign you're still alive. I mean, I really just hurt.

• 37:07John Hopkins?

  Extreme blunt force trauma, while not always visible externally, causes havoc inside the body. Ruptured organs, broken bones, internal bleeding.

• 37:20John Hopkins?

  It's impossible to know the extent of the damage he has sustained. The fact that he's still alive doesn't mean the fall won't yet prove to be fatal.

• 37:30Speaker 01

  It takes about 90 minutes to get you from the field to an OR to fix you. So you have to survive that 90 minutes, that golden hour or hour and a half. And so I'm like, all right, you got all sorts of things going on. You gotta keep your blood pressure down. You can't panic, can't go into shock. You just gotta sit here and let people come and take care of you.

• 37:56John Hopkins?

  If he can stay calm, he might live to tell this tale.

• 38:01John Hopkins?

  Bolts of pain tear through his chest as Craig rolls onto his back, eyes bulging, the tendons in his neck straining like tension wires.

• 38:11John Hopkins?

  He lies there, grimacing, staring up at the sky.

• 38:16John Hopkins?

  If only he could ease some of the pressure in his chest. He starts trying to remove his parachute harness. But as he wrestles with the straps, he hears someone approaching.

• 38:27Speaker 01

  Katie got to me first, and she's a nurse. So it's very handy having a nurse when you land like that to assess things. And she's telling me to stop moving, and I'm trying to get my equipment off. And one of the real perverse things was, as I'm getting equipment off, my knife fell out of my pocket. So, you know, God has a sense of humor, I think.

• 38:53John Hopkins?

  Katie reassures Craig and urges him to lay still. Then she takes his phone, thankfully still in one piece, and dials 911. An ambulance will be here soon. In the meantime, Craig asks Katie to place a few more calls, first to his wife, then to his other skydiving teammates, people he wants by his side if he doesn't make it through this.

• 39:19Speaker 01

  Because again, I didn't know I was gonna live yet, but I at least wanted my family and my extended family of my teammates to know I'd made it that far and I was trying to get to the hospital. And if they could get there, if, you know, something was gonna happen to me, I'd want them there. For me personally, it was, okay, I've made it this far. I know a lot of people who've made it into the helicopter and passed away. I know of people who've died days later in the hospital. So I'm not out of the woods. I've still gotta do smart things and do what Katie's telling me to do.

• 40:01John Hopkins?

  Soon, more people surround him. TJ, staff from the airfield, and finally, a team of firefighters who load Craig onto a stretcher and carry him across the vineyard to a waiting ambulance.

• 40:15John Hopkins?

  Craig is rushed to the intensive care unit of a local hospital, where doctors immediately start checking for critical injuries.

• 40:23John Hopkins?

  To their astonishment, after falling from 8,000 feet and hitting the ground at 30 miles an hour, he doesn't seem to have sustained any life-threatening internal damage. He hasn't even broken any bones.

• 40:38John Hopkins?

  Those little adjustments he made before landing, tucking in his limbs, relaxing his joints, essentially turned his body into a shock absorber, allowing it to withstand a massive impact.

• 40:51John Hopkins?

  By now, Craig's skydiving friends have all been informed about the accident. Hearing that he fell without a parachute, they naturally assumed the worst.

• 41:01John Hopkins?

  A bottle of whiskey was procured, with the intention of raising a glass to their friend's memory.

• 41:07John Hopkins?

  But when they learn of his miraculous survival, Craig's deliriously happy teammates smuggle the booze up to his ward, where he is given the rare opportunity to attend his own memorial service.

• 41:21John Hopkins?

  Still, he declines the offer of a drink.

• 41:24Speaker 01

  I'm like, you know, if they take my blood alcohol level, I can't be getting drunk while I'm sitting in the ER. That'll just look bad. So I'll hold off, you know, I'll wait till I get home. But they, they celebrated, they celebrated, you know, my stupidity and my survival in the fashion that I expect them to.

• 41:46John Hopkins?

  Doctors continue to monitor him. But it soon becomes clear that aside from some severe bruising and cartilage damage, Craig is basically unscathed.

• 41:56Speaker 01

  I wasn't bleeding, I didn't break anything. Yes, I was uncomfortable, but I wasn't an immediate threat of dying. And so they're like, well, we'll keep you overnight and we'll see how you do overnight. And I was like, I am going home. There's 20 people here, they're going to keep an eye on me all night, so I will have better care at home and I'll get better rest. And so I walked out about eight o'clock at night to go home.

• 42:24John Hopkins?

  Over the course of the next few weeks, Craig lets his bruised body heal. He may have avoided severe injury, but that doesn't mean the recovery process is a walk in the park.

• 42:35Speaker 01

  It was pretty dramatic. Most of my, like, sternal cartilage had been damaged. If I sneezed, I would just start crying. Getting off the toilet was difficult because I didn't have the muscles to lift myself up.

• 42:50John Hopkins?

  Craig steadily gets better. However, given the intensity of the accident, it is far from guaranteed that he will skydive again. But then again, life is short.

• 43:04Speaker 01

  I'm not the brightest man. I was back jumping in five weeks because we had a skydiving meet that we were participating in. And we had to be able to perform. But yeah, five weeks later, I was back in the plane, a little nervous, but ready to go. I like skydiving. I always compared it to my mistress. I go see her on the weekends and then I come home and, and hang out and be a normal human being.

• 43:32John Hopkins?

  In the years following his accident, he continues to do it regularly, until things outside of his control force him to hang up his parachute for good.

• 43:42John Hopkins?

  But as he moves forwards and looks to the future, he is now able to embrace other joys that life still has to offer.

• 43:49Speaker 01

  The team stopped in 2014, after 25 years. I quit jumping by 2016 because I have some back issues that needed to be addressed. And my doctor eventually just told me, look, you can either jump out of planes or you can walk. But you can't do both. And I was like, ah, I really like walking. You know, I really like that. So I just got into other things. And, you know, starting a whole new chapter, I got into going to Burning Man, which is almost as much work as being on a skydiving team.

• 44:36John Hopkins?

  Next time on Real Survival Stories, we meet Mika Muller.

• 44:41John Hopkins?

  In 2019, the former special forces soldier has embraced a nomadic existence sailing the seas aboard his catamaran. But all his plans for the future come crashing to a halt when during a single-handed crossing of the Atlantic, the weather suddenly deteriorates, thrusting Mika into the grip of a deadly hurricane. Shipwrecked, 1,000 miles from the nearest shore and with no prospect of quick rescue, Mika's survival depends entirely on a makeshift life raft, a few pieces of kit, and his own innate drive to live. And even if he can make it through the worst of the storm, he'll soon discover that the ocean has plenty of other nasty surprises in store for him lurking in the depths.

• 45:25John Hopkins?

  That's next time on Real Survival Stories. Listen right now without ads and without waiting a week by joining Noiser Plus. This October on the Noiser Podcast Network, Real Dictators returns. We're in the Dominican Republic for the story of Rafael Trujillo. On Short History of, we'll uncover the secrets of the Hoover Dam and follow Mary Shelley, the creator of Frankenstein and his monster. On Real Survival Stories, a modern Viking adventure as a replica Norse vessel embarks on a daring voyage across the North Sea, and a man is struck blind all alone at the very top of the world. In Jane Austen stories, Emma continues with Dame Julie Andrews.

• 46:06John Hopkins?

  And in Sherlock Holmes' short stories, Holmes and Watson unpick an epic mystery of hidden treasure and murder in The Sign of Four. Get all of these shows and more early and ad-free on Noiser Plus.