VIDEO: Skydiver rescued mid-air after suffering seizure at 9,000ft

Christopher Jones passed out just moments after he jumped out the plane and was spinning out of control.

18:28 02 March 2015

Skydiver Christopher Jones suffered a seizure just moments after he left the plane on his training dive near Perth in November. In a video posted online, he was captured spinning out of control.

Instructor Sheldon McFarlane was able to grab the 22-year-old and deploy his parachute. Jones, regained consciousness at about 3,000 feet and managed to land safely.

McFarlane said: “At no time was I worried he was going to hit the ground without a parachute, but given the circumstances and where we were I thought it would be better to get him under parachute earlier than later.”

“I managed to catch him on my second attempt and deploy his parachute. As far as difficult, yeah, it was OK. I got him.”

Jones had previously been diagnosed with epilepsy but had been seizure-free for four years and his doctor said it was safe for him to skydive. However, due to the incident, he said that he won’t be skydiving again.

He said: “I remember up until the point I blacked out and then waking up underneath the parachute at about 3,000 feet.”

“I think I’m fairly lucky, but the emergencies [automatic activation devices] on the chutes work nearly all the time so I think I would have been OK if the jump master hadn’t actually caught me.”