Russia’s Emergencies Ministry has sent an aircraft to the United States to fly home a skydiver who is in a coma after colliding with another jumper on Sunday in California.
Irina Sinitsyna, a World and European Record-holding free-faller, has been unconscious since an attempt on a hundred-person formation world-record jump at Perris Valley airfield, involving skydivers from many nations.
The incident occured when the formation group split up and the jumpers began to open their canopies. Sinitsyna “collided with another parachutist, became tangled in her strops and was unable to fully open her reserve by the time she hit the ground,” her friend Tatyana Zharova said.
She fell unconsious on impact and broke several vertebrae in her neck. No one else was hurt in the accident.
Doctors say she remains in a critical condition. She will be flown home from Los Angeles to Moscow today.