Unconscious skydiver wins race with gravity

One moment Christopher Jones was in fine skydiving form, enjoying the adrenaline rush of jumping from a plane at 12,000ft, with the mottled landscape of Pinjarra below.

The next, he remembers nothing.

In terrifying vision recorded by instructor Sheldon McFarlane's helmet camera, Mr Jones had a seizure, flipping on to his back and blacking out just seconds into his freefall.

Mr McFarlane could tell something was wrong when his previously "perfect" student tumbled out of control, buffeted by winds, and spun away from him into the distance.

He calmly used his years of experience to speed his own fall, manoeuvre closer and then, in a heart-stopping moment, grab Mr Jones' flailing arm and pull the ripcord on his parachute.

By the time Mr Jones regained consciousness, he was just 3000 feet above the ground, with the frantic voice of an instructor in his earpiece yelling at him to prepare to land.

On the ground, the grateful student was able to hug Mr McFarlane, who he said undoubtedly saved his life.

Before the jump, 22-year-old Mr Jones felt good.

He was demonstrating a mid-air turn, on the fifth lesson of his skydiving course, when the steady position he had been holding suddenly weakened.

His arms and legs flapped with every movement and he ended up facing skyward, instead of towards the ground.

Mr McFarlane, from WA Skydiving Academy, said at first, he thought the November 14 mishap was just another example of an overwhelmed student.

But unbeknown to both, what started as a routine skydive had become a race against gravity to save Mr Jones' life.

The footage, uploaded to YouTube on Sunday, captures the horrifying moment Mr Jones suffers an epileptic seizure 9000ft above the ground.

It also shows the hair-raising attempts by Mr McFarlane to grab the young skydiver.

"You have to change your body position to go head-first towards them so you can get closer," he said.

"His movements were pretty predictable, so it was easier to get over to him." As he took hold of Mr Jones and pulled the cord to his parachute at 4000ft, there was a sigh of relief.

But in the seconds that followed, Mr Jones' life continued to hang in the balance.

While reserve parachutes would have automatically deployed without Mr McFarlane's intervention, Mr Jones' lack of control over his body meant there was still a risk it could become tangled in the parachute strings.

"That can occur sometimes when the parachute deploys underneath you, which is why, if you see in the video, Sheldon actually tries to tip me, as he pulls the ripcord, back on to my front," Mr Jones said.

On the ground, an instructor frantically speaks to Mr Jones via a headpiece, confused as to why he is disobeying instructions to prepare for his landing.

The voice of the instructor was the first Mr Jones heard after he regained consciousness.

"My thoughts when I regained consciousness were to go through the steps that I needed to do, that was my immediate reaction," he said.

After landing and reviewing the footage, it was confirmed that Mr Jones had suffered a mid-air epileptic seizure.

He was well aware of his condition, having managed it since he was 12. According to his parents Lia and Mike, his seven previous seizures had a habit of striking at the most inconvenient times - at a swimming pool, on a climbing frame and even at the wheel of a car.

But the Curtin University entrepreneurship and commerce student was determined to experience the thrill of a skydive.

After receiving medical clearance 4½ years since his last seizure, he went ahead with a skydiving course.

"I've always wanted to fly planes and I just wanted the feeling of flight. Obviously with my condition I can't be a pilot so, I thought, next best thing, I can fly myself," he said.

Mr McFarlane, who had been previously unaware just how risky his student's situation was, reunited with Mr Jones on the ground shortly after he landed. "I said, 'Thank you very much, thank you for saving my life.' He couldn't have done a better job, it was amazing. I gave him a big hug," Mr Jones said.

The most recent incident has all but ended his skydiving career, much to the relief of Mr Jones' parents.

The couple told how they were in tears as they watched the footage that night of the moment they almost lost their son.

I said, 'Thank you very much, thank you for saving my life.'" Christopher Jones