Fifty metres (165ft) above a Thai lagoon, ankles bound and secured to a bungee cord, Rishi Baveja shuffled to the edge of a small platform and threw himself off.
Horrifyingly, instead of the cord "bungeeing" the 22-year-old back up after unfurling, the harness securing his feet unravelled with disconcerting ease. An unsecured Baveja hit the water at 80mph (130kmh), sustaining injuries likened to those of a car crash victim.
Doctors told Baveja he was lucky to be alive after he took the force of the impact on his chest, suffering a ruptured spleen, torn liver, collapsed lungs and massive bruising. He spent a month in a Bangkok hospital following the jump on 30 July this year.
"I'm very lucky," he told the Daily Mail. "If I had landed head first I would be brain-damaged, or dead."
The Briton was in Phuket on a month-long trip to celebrate graduating from the University of Cambridge. He paid £50 to Jungle Bungy Jump, whose web page on a Phuket tourism site boasts that all activities are "accident free since June 14 1992".
Terry Pearce, the owner of Jungle Bungy Jump, said today it was the first accident the company had experienced in more than 140,000 jumps over 17 years.
"He didn't follow instructions," Pearce said. "He jumped with his feet first, panicked and kicked his way out of his harness. In 17 years we've never had anyone jump like that before."
He said Jungle Bungy Jump had purchased new which would make it "impossible" for anyone to come loose.
See the photos on the link...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery ... =353827867
and story link.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oc ... l-thailand
