I've always wanted to do this, but I think I just changed my mind…
Before you freak out too much, the woman in the video did survive.
This happened in 2012 in Africa, and like a lot of things on the internet, resurfaced to terrify the heck out of us.
Erin Langworthy slowed enough before the cord broke to allow her to survive the plunge into the Zambezi river at Victoria Falls in Zambia. She spent 40 minutes in the water, but in the first few she managed to stay conscious enough to swim out of the rapids.
The sound of bubbles was so loud. I felt as if I had been slapped all over. My hands had stopped me hitting the water headfirst and blacking out. My lungs were on fire and I was struggling to breathe.
I later found out I'd fallen for four seconds after the rope snapped: a distance of up to 40m. If I had been over land, I'd have been dead. Luckily, it had rained the day before, so the river was turbulent and full.
The more than 100 feet of bungie cord still attached to her kept dragging her downriver until she managed to wedge her arm in some rocks.
At one point, the cord snagged below me and I was trapped below the surface. As I was running out of air and my vision started to fade, I managed to dive back down, grab the rope and pull it free. Eventually I managed to wedge my arm between two slimy rocks near the side of the river. All I thought about was clinging on.
By the time she was rescued and taken to a hospital, more than 6 hours had passed. Other than bruising and a collapse lung, she had no other major injuries.
Around 50,000 people jump from that spot every year, so it was pure chance that the rope snapped on me – just wear and tear. They've now introduced measures to ensure it doesn't happen again.
