ROOKIE skydiver Tracy Aker's maiden outing ended in a sky-high drama when her parachute gear failed at 5,000ft.

And today she paid tribute to her cool-headed instructor, Mick Danby, after he was forced to jettison their shared parachute during the charity jump.

Tracy, 24, from York, was making her maiden descent, strapped to instructor Mick Danby, when the drama unfolded at RAF Topcliffe, near Thirsk.

She said the tandem jump from 10,000 feet went as planned until the main canopy holding the pair opened at 5,000 feet.

"You roll and spin. It is very noisy. You can't breathe.

" Then the 'chute opened and I was in a standing position and it went very quiet," she said.

"I saw something go down by the side of my head. Then Mick swore very loudly. I said, 'What?' He was fiddling a bit.

"He said, 'Right, we are going to have to go again. We have got something tangled.'"

A fabric slider keeping the lines of their high-performance chute separate had only partially deployed. This created handling difficulties and the possibility of a hard landing.

Mick released the main canopy and the pair went into free fall for a second time before the reserve chute opened.

Tracy added: "The second one is not very steerable and we landed in a muddy field away from the drop zone, flat on our faces. We had no bumps or bruises.

"I stood up with a smile on my face and screamed. Then I gave Dave a big hug. He got it sort out, thank God."

Tracy, of Carrick Gardens, Acomb, raised £200 for the British Red Cross through sponsorship from family and friends. Her jump was organised by the Merlin Parachute Club.

Drop-zone manager Bill Rule said: "The instructor who deployed the parachute felt it was not falling correctly and made the decision to discard it and deploy the reserve.

"This is the same size as the main parachute, so there were no problems coming down under that and they landed safely on the airfield."

He added: "The modern equipment we have has advanced so far technologically that if something goes wrong the chances of getting hurt are very, very slim. It is a very safe sport."

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