An Australian woman whose bungee jumping cord snapped, plunging her head-first
into raging waters in Africa's Zambezi River with her feet still tied, on
Monday described her "miracle" survival.
Erin Langworthy, 22, was on holiday in Africa on New Year's Eve when she took
on the 111-metre (364-foot) bungee jump from the Victoria Falls bridge above
the river, which borders Zambia and Zimbabwe.
But it all went horribly wrong when the cord snapped about halfway into the
jump. The terrifying moment was caught on video and Langworthy is seen hitting
the water with her feet still tied before being swept towards rapids.
"It went black straight away and I felt like I'd been slapped all over," she
told Australia's Channel Nine in an interview recounting the moment of impact.
"As I went deeper down, the water got colder and it must have snapped me out of
it."
Langworthy, from Perth, said she had been white water rafting the previous day
and remembered some of the safety tips to get through the looming rapids.
"The water was going quite quickly and then I started to hear the roaring," she
said.
"It's like being in waves, you get sucked under and then you pop up so it's
very disorienting, I didn't know which was up or down."
She managed to swim to the Zimbabwe side of the river, where she hauled herself
out.
"It was quite scary because a couple of times the rope actually got caught on
some rocks or debris," she said.
"I actually had to swim down and yank the bungee cord out of whatever it was
caught on to make it to the surface."
Langworthy suffered a fractured collar bone as well as massive bruising in the
accident and was taken to South Africa for treatment.
"Yes, I think it's definitely a miracle that I survived," she told the
broadcaster.
Click on to see how the accident happened.
Erin Langworthy, 22, was on holiday in Africa on New Year's Eve when she took
on the 111-metre bungee jump from the Victoria Falls bridge into the Zambezi
River.
But her brave jump turned awry when the cord snapped halfway.
The terrifying moment was caught on video.
Her friends watched in horror as Langworthy plunged head-first into the raging,
croc-infested waters, reported Australian publication The Age.
The footage showed her being washed downstream with the bungee cord still
wrapped around her legs.
"It went black straight away and I felt like I'd been slapped all over," the
Perth woman told Australia's Channel Nine in an interview recounting the moment
of impact.
In the video, her friends could be heard yelling out her name as she floats
down the Zambezi River, urging the bungee operators to do something to save
her.
"It was quite scary because a couple of times the rope actually got caught on
some rocks or debris," Langworthy said.
"I actually had to swim down and yank the bungee cord out of whatever it was
caught on to make it to the surface," she said.
