Skydiver Holly Wiffen makes shock call after cheating death in terrifying freefall accident

A British skydiver has cheated death after surviving a terrifying mid-air accident that left her unconscious and falling thousands of metres without a deployed parachute.

Holly Wiffen, 35, was taking part in a group skydive over Langfard airfield near Nottingham, England, when disaster struck at around 12,000 feet (3657 metres), The Sun reports.

Ms Wiffen, an experienced skydiver with about 425 jumps under her belt, was performing a formation manoeuvre known as “tracking” when a fellow diver accidentally collided with her, knocking her unconscious

Horrifying GoPro footage appears to show moments later when Ms Wiffen is seen hurtling toward the ground before she disappears out of frame.

What followed was a desperate race against time as Ms Wiffen plunged further toward the ground.

She hurtled about 10,000 feet (3048 metres) while she was unconscious and reached speeds of up to 150kmph without a parachute deployed.

Another skydiver attempted to reach her as she fell, but was unable to grab her and had to deploy his own parachute.

Against extraordinary odds, Ms Wiffen eventually pulled her rip cord about five seconds before deadly impact, despite her having no memory of doing so.

Her reserve parachute then also deployed after registering that she was travelling too quickly and was too low to the ground. The two parachutes created a dangerous configuration known as a “downplane” which accelerated her descent rather than bringing her safely to a stop.

In another stroke of luck, Ms Wiffen eventually crashed into a conifer tree, which significantly cushioned the impact.

She later recalled how lucky she was to land in the tree and not the neighbouring buildings and roads.

“I came down amidst caravans, buildings, trees, roads, all sorts. It was just an absolute mess of a place to land,” she told The Sun.

“There’s also power lines all around that area as well, so I was very lucky not to hit any of those.

“If I hadn’t hit the tree I would have hit the ground and would have been soup. Most people don’t survive skydiving accidents like that.”

Stunned by the ordeal, Ms Wiffen said she didn’t realise the gravity of the accident until she took a look at her injured leg.

“I didn’t come around until I was lying on the ground,” she added.

“My helmet had come off and I looked down at my leg and it was pointing in a different direction.

“I looked up and saw the reserve in the tree and realised something had gone wrong.

She was raced in a stretcher to a hospital in Nottingham after first responders managed to locate her in the shrub.

“People had to fight through brambles to find me. They saw me disappear and wanted to get to me as fast as they could — they were just assuming they were picking up a dead person,” she continued.

“People started arriving and the first thing I said is, ‘Help me get my kit off’, before the paramedics cut it off me.”

Although Ms Wiffen was lucky to escape with her life, she suffered a broken leg, a fractured spine and bad bruising to her body.

She underwent surgery six days later to place a metal rod in her injured leg.

Despite the near-death experience, Ms Wiffen said she can’t wait to return to the extreme sport.

“I want to get back to skydiving as soon as I can,” she said.

“Although knowing what happened and that I could have died also makes me a little nervous.”