Plunge pilot: I will walk again

Former RAF man Richard Jessop, from South Yorkshire, broke his back, both legs and every bone in his feet in the horror fall.

But, despite breaking 60 bones in his body, he says he is determined to prove the doctors wrong and walk again within the next 12 months.

Mr Jessop, 40, said: "There are more important things in life than a few bruises and broken bones."

He believes his military pilot's training may have helped save his life as he plummeted to the ground, as he was half-way through a flight over Snowdonia in North Wales.

After hitting air turbulence he plummeted and grappled with the controls of his craft to try to reinflate his parachute at 200ft. Although he had a spare, he was too low to use it. Despite his ordeal, Mr Jessop remained conscious throughout the fall and landing.

After landing on his feet he bounced four times into a field of boulders before he was dragged along the ground.

Mr Jessop – known to his friends as Gary – said: "I was still conscious at the time. It all happened so quickly I didn't have time to respond to it all in my head.

"I knew I was going to hit the deck and I knew I was going to hit the deck very hard. At that point I didn't think I was going to die. I did later, but then I was just thinking how it spoilt my day.

"I managed to dial 999 from a mobile and fire a distress flare. I was able to give them my grid reference from the GPS system, which survived the fall.

"I didn't feel any pain. I could see my right leg was out of shape, but I wasn't bleeding on the outside at least. I tried to walk but slipped into a crevice and got stuck."

He then began drifting in and out of consciousness and remembers a 999 operator speaking over the telephone.

Although he could not talk, the former serviceman knew that leaving his mobile phone on would help his rescuers track the signal and find him.

He also took a series of more than 20 date-stamped pictures – so that a coroner would have an exact time of his death if he didn't survive.

A police helicopter and an RAF Sea King helicopter were quickly on the scene, but it took them half an hour to reach Mr Jessop as he was in a steep boulder field.

The pilot, from Barugh Green, Barnsley, was then airlifted to Bangor Hospital in Gwynedd, where he spent three weeks in intensive care before being transferred to the spinal unit of Sheffield's Northern General Hospital. He is expected to remain in hospital for several months – but said he is determined to walk again.

Mr Jessop said: "I have resigned myself to selling the paraglider. Maybe I'll take up something safer like base jumping."

Dave Thompson, of the British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association, is carrying out an investigation into the accident.

He said: "It was not a free fall, his paraglider created some drag and slowed his speed. I've no idea what speed it was but he is still a lucky lad.

"He landed on his feet, which is obviously bad but probably saved his life. If he had landed on his side he might not have survived.

"I don't know how high he fell but it was obviously steep as he was flying near the summit of Snowdonia.

"If you fall, you fall a long way up there – it is steep."

Mr Thompson said there were two or three fatalities among paraglider pilots each year, which was comparable with other forms of aviation sports.

He said: "Accidents occur when people deliberately or accidentally misread the conditions and fly a glider they are not capable of flying."

He added he would have been better off had the sail collapsed when Mr Jessop was higher up.

Mr Thompson said: "Collapses are essentially not a rare thing. The glider sail can be reinflated but it needs time and space.

"If he had been higher and not so close to the hill he would have been able to inflate it."

Mr Jessop's father Eric Jessop said yesterday: "It's a miracle my son survived."

Novice broke back with ebay machine

The dangers of paragliding are not to be underestimated, as novice Roy Dixon can attest.

The 45-year-old from Hexham, Northumberland, was in the air for less than a minute before he plummeted 50ft to the ground, breaking his back in two places.

Mr Dixon had bought the paraglider for 300 from eBay and had got "about half-way" through a book on the subject before attempting to take to the skies in May this year.

But he made a disastrous decision – using 50ft of rope to tether the paraglider to his car, in the hope it would act as an anchor. Instead, it meant he lost control of his craft within seconds and was slammed into the side of a hill.

Mr Dixon said: "I feel lucky but I also feel foolish. I was looking for a thrill – call it a mid-life crisis if you want.

"In the end I dodged death and paralysis. I feel like I've got off lightly, by the grace of God."