KNOXVILLE, Iowa —
A skydiver injured in a weekend crash is back home and recovering from what she calls minor injuries.
Jessica Weiderholt was skydiving with the Des Moines Skydivers out of Knoxville in a discipline known as canopy relative work, or CRW, where skydivers link canopies to create formations. That is when she became tangled and started to fall.
Weiderholt said she took up skydiving two years ago and quickly fell in love with the sport. After becoming licensed, she began doing more advanced jumps. Saturday was her 90th jump.
Everything was going well on Saturday until Weiderholt became tangled in her parachute.
“I was able to free it from my head, my neck and my upper body. However, it had entangled onto my ankle,” she said. “I tried to remain calm and do what I could to get as much fabric open above me as possible to slow my descent rate.”
Hanging upside down, spinning and running out of room, Weiderholt said she crashed into a cornfield at 20 to 25 mph, about twice the speed of a normal landing.
“I do remember impact; my eyes were not open, but I remember hitting the ground. I remember how hard it was and how hard it hurt, but I just opened my eyes, and was thankful to be alive,” she said.
Weiderholt was flown to a Des Moines hospital, where doctors found only one broken bone: a fractured sacrum, the bone just above the tailbone.
Doctors told her not to put any weight on her left foot for six weeks. After that, Weiderholt said she is expected to make a full recovery.
“[I'm] just definitely grateful. It's still kind of shocking to me that that's really all I escaped with. But yeah, definitely grateful,” she said.
Weiderholt said she worries her crash will discourage others from skydiving and said tandem jumps (what non-experienced jumpers would do) are much safer than the type she was doing.
“That was the hardest part for me is knowing that this accident has discouraged so many people when, in reality, both drop zones in Iowa promote how fun it can be and bring people together,” she said.
Weiderholt said she is done skydiving for the season but hopes to be back in a plane as soon as possible.
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