An Australian tourist who went bungee jumping in Africa suffered extensive bruising and a broken collarbone but is fortunate to be alive after the cord snapped during her 365-foot New Year's Eve plunge from a bridge above the Zambesi River. ABC News shared Erin Langworthy's harrowing tale Sunday, supported by video footage sure to make prospective bungee jumpers think twice about participating in this thrilling but dangerous sport.
Bungee Cord Breaks Above the Zambezi River
"It's definitely a miracle that I survived," she said.
There appears to have been some tension in the cord before it broke; perhaps enough to slow the plunge and prevent more serious injuries, or death.
But for Langworthy, 22, the ordeal did not end after a violent landing that caused her to temporarily black out and made her feel as though "I'd been slapped all over." The rope was still secured around her legs and it repeatedly got snagged on rocks as she was being pulled downstream and through rapids.
"It felt like I had been slapped all over," Erin Langworthy told Australia's Network Nine television. "I landed with my legs tied and then had to swim to the Zimbabwe side [of the river] through the rapids."
She gasped for breaths while wrestling to untangle the cord before ultimately achieving the river's bank.
"It's like being in waves, you get sucked under and then you pop up so it's very disorienting, I didn't know which was up or down," she said.
Langworthy was treated at a clinic before being flown home to South Africa. She had been with Safari Par Excellence, which had boasted a lengthy safety record.
The jump, which costs $120, is billed as "111 meters of pure adrenaline!" and "Not for the faint hearted!"