In a tragic skydiving incident, tourist Paulina Biskup plummeted to her death while on the holiday of a lifetime. Desiring an unforgettable thrill, she took to the skies with her parachute but soon encountered issues that led to her fatal descent.
The Dublin-based Polish national was seen flailing in mid-air by witnesses in sheer terror as she approached the ground. During her fall, her harness failed and she dropped several feet, disappearing into tall grass as onlookers let out horrified screams.
The tragedy was captured on video on Tuesday at Aguapanela, a paragliding hotspot in Roldanillo, Colombia. Merely moments after launch, Paulina faced difficulties and is believed to have succumbed to severe injuries upon impact.
READ MORE: Teacher’s lunchtime boozing in Morrisons car park exposed as colleague notices odd act
Despite swift action from emergency services, they couldn’t save the 38 year old woman, as reported by local outlets. Alongside her partner and friends, Paulina was not partaking in an ongoing paragliding event in the area.
Known for its optimal weather for flying, Roldanillo is dubbed the “paragliding capital” of Colombia, and the Aguapanela site is famed for its stunning vistas and excellent wind conditions, reports the Mirror.
Paulina, who resided in the Irish capital and was a Trinity College Dublin alumna since 2010 as per her social media, met with tragedy. A local official, preferring to remain anonymous, disclosed to the press: “It seems she didn’t fasten her harness properly, which caused her to fall.”
Roldanillo authorities have confirmed that they are conducting an investigation into the distressing incident.
In a separate but equally harrowing event last year, Jordan Hatmaker from Virginia Beach recounted surviving a fall from an aircraft after her parachute malfunctioned, sharing the terrifying experience in stark detail. She had embarked on what was meant to be the final jump of the day when her parachute failed to deploy correctly, sending her into an uncontrollable spin and plummeting to the ground at speeds exceeding 60mph.
Hatmaker said: “Everything was fine during freefall, but then I pulled my chute. The pilot chute wrapped around my right leg a few times. I tried desperately to get it off. Time slowed down for me but I was falling so fast. I thought I had a lot more time than I did.
“I was trying to get it off my leg, and then I tried to get my shoe off but I had double knotted my shoelaces because in a previous jump one of my shoes fell off. (The instructor actually caught it in the air.)
“At 750ft the automatic activation device fired, which is like a reserve parachute which opens when you get to a certain altitude without deploying the main parachute. My reserve parachute came out which jolted enough to make my main parachute come out. But the two canopies were flying next to each other, dragging away from each other and started me spinning into the ground.
“This was 200ft above the ground. It happened so fast. I was completely out of control. I just remember thinking that the ground was coming up really really fast. And I remember thinking: ‘This is going to hurt.'”