Tangled Parachute: Hurtling to Earth

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John Hopkins (1:03)

It is Sunday, March the 10th, 2013 As the sun rises over central California, the mist blanketing San Joaquin County slowly lifts, revealing a checkerboard landscape of lush green fields, vineyards and orange groves. The sky is awash of cornflower blue, vast and spotlessly clear. Save for one or two fluffy white clouds and the occasional darting shape of a swallow.

Looking closer, however, something else catches the eye. It's hard to tell what it is at first. An object rapidly descending from the clear blue, trailing something in its wake. Whatever it is, the object is hurtling towards the earth at an alarming speed.

As it gets closer, it becomes possible to make out the details. The tangled parachute cords, the twisted canopy, the desperate, flailing limbs. It is a person falling from the sky.

Craig Stapleton (2:09)

I was stuck with my equipment twisted, my parachutes not flying, and it was about all the things I could imagine going wrong. You know, if I had a cockpit light system in front of me, they would have all turned red.

John Hopkins (2:23)

Fifty-one-year-old Craig Stapleton fumbles with his parachute harness as the California farmland surges up towards him. In the last few moments, he has tried every countermeasure he could think of, every Hail Mary in the book. But nothing has worked.

With the wind, a deafening roar in his ears, Craig looks up at the tangled, knotty mess above him.

Craig Stapleton (2:46)

I realize that those two parachutes tied up together is what a dead man sees. I am not going to survive what I have got now.

John Hopkins (2:56)

There is only one way this will end. All Craig can do is hope that something breaks his fall, a body of water perhaps, or a tree canopy.

But as he spirals ever lower, fleeting glimpses of the ground reveal something far less forgiving.

Craig Stapleton (3:12)

And I am thinking, well, maybe I'm over something soft, maybe some water, and I am over a vineyard. It is iron spikes with these scraggly plants and concertina wire across everything. And I realize I am in deep trouble.

John Hopkins (3:35)

Ever wondered what you would do when disaster strikes? If your life depended on your next decision, could you make the right choice? Welcome to Real Survival Stories. These are the astonishing tales of ordinary people thrown into extraordinary situations, people suddenly forced to fight for their lives.

In this episode, we meet 51-year-old Craig Stapleton. Craig is a dentist from Sacramento, California. He is also one of the most skilled professional skydivers in America.

On Sunday, in March 2013, Craig and his skydiving partner, Katie, are practicing a complex mid-air routine when one small error leads to a domino effect of escalating crises. With his lines tangled and his parachute malfunctioning, Craig will start scrambling to fix the situation, frantically grappling with his equipment as he hurtles towards the earth.

Craig Stapleton (4:32)

I'm pulling this thing and I get to the point where I'm actually trying to hold it in my teeth so I can use both hands to release this mechanism and that doesn't work.

John Hopkins (4:44)

As each emergency measure fails one by one, the ground gets closer and closer. Craig is spiraling towards a crunching high-speed collision with the earth.

Craig Stapleton (4:56)

I see my altimeters getting lower and lower and eventually even while I'm playing with all this, I realize I'm probably going to die, that I'm a dead man.

John Hopkins (5:06)

I'm John Hopkins. From the Noiser Podcast Network, this is Real Survival Stories.

It's March 10th, 2013 Just outside the town of Lodi in California's Central Valley, a car pulls into the parking lot of a small private airfield. Craig Stapleton steps out of his vehicle and breathes in the crisp morning air. A 51-year-old dentist looks up at the sky and notes with satisfaction that today it is blue and cloudless. Ideal conditions. He grabs a duffel bag from the back seat and heads towards the hangar.