Base jumper cheats death - again
HEART-stopping video footage shows Mossman base jumper Hamish McCorkindale leaping from a cliff and crashing to the ground in what he describes as a "reprieve from death".
The video, believed to have been shot about six months ago, shows the 32-year-old emerging from trees to the cheers of disbelieving witnesses after his parachute fully opens only metres from the ground.
"Let me tell you, this jump gave me a new appreciation of LIFE!!!" Mr McCorkindale wrote on the website where his video, "Hamish Almost Bites It", was posted.
The incident is eerily similar to the crash landing at the weekend that has put him in hospital in a critical condition with pelvic, leg and spinal injuries.
Mr McCorkindale, who co-owns Mossman Squash Centre, somehow survived a 268m fall at Wallaman Falls, southwest of Ingham, on Sunday, after his parachute failed to properly open.
He landed heavily in the water but managed to struggle to shore where witnesses, including Port Douglas man and childhood friend Scott Farrell, provided first aid until paramedics arrived.
Mr McCorkindale was winched into an Emergency Management Queensland helicopter and flown to Townsville hospital.
His family have flown from the Gold Coast to be by his side.
Police said two similar near-tragic accidents in the past four years proved base jumping at Wallaman Falls was reckless.
"The danger is that the chute fails to deploy properly or not at all, which leaves them injured or killed at the bottom of the falls," Ingham police Sgt Geoff Bormann said.
In comments posted alongside the video on YouTube, Mr McCorkindale promised to post footage of his earlier lucky escape taken from a helmet camera.
"I was definately (sic) given a reprieve from death that day," he wrote.
"Many lessons learnt with a new outlook on life."
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Injured Mossman base jumper Hamish McCorkindale survived a 260m fall near Ingham.
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