>
An Oklahoma mother of two plunged to her death during a freak solo skydiving accident after getting caught in a spin and hitting the ground, sustaining life-threatening injuries.
Heather Glasgow, 44, had jumped several times with a partner, but was on her first solo jump at the Adventure Skydiving Center in Sallisaw when disaster struck.
Horrified witnesses said his parachute deployed but began to spin.uncontrollably into the air and was unable to recover. She was rushed to a hospital and died shortly after.
Sallisaw police said that “an unknown problem arose during the skydive” and that they were investigating and working with the FAA and the Oklahoma Medical Examiner’s Office to determine the cause of the incident.
The FAA said in a statement that it is investigating the packaging of the main and reserve parachutes, while local authorities are in charge of other aspects of the investigation.
The 44-year-old victim, Heather Glasgow of Poteau, was at the Adventure Skydiving Center in Sallisaw on Saturday afternoon ready for a thrilling adventure before the tragic fall that occurred near the Arkansas state line, about 150 miles east. from Oklahoma City.
Glasgow was filmed in an earlier jump. Before the skydive, when the instructor asked, ‘Are you ready to jump out of a plane?’ …. ‘Why would you want to do that.’ She smiled, raised her arms and said, ‘Life… life.’
Witness to the fatal fall, Roland Preston was driving on Interstate 59 when he witnessed the terrifying scene. ‘The body that was in that parachute was spinning in circles and nothing happened.
He said KFOR News the body he saw was ‘completely on its side’ and he claimed they were ‘already unconscious in midair’.
“If they had responded, they would have been kicking and trying to fight with their arms to control the parachute,” Preston said.
added: ‘It bothered us a lot. He wanted to be able to do something for the person, but there was nothing he could do except call 911. There’s no way that person could have survived that.’
He was puzzled by the sound he heard when Glasgow hit the ground. “Just hearing the thud, the distinctive thud when the person hit, it was traumatizing.”
Preston also told News 5 that he had never heard of a problem at the Adventure Skydiving Center before.
Before Saturday’s tragic fall, Glasgow had done a tandem jump, when a skydiver is attached to an instructor, and had attended two jumping classes for the first time. he took courses and jumps at the same facility where he perished.
Devastated relative from Glasgow, Valori Slaughter, told Oklahoma 4 News that her cousin skydived at the same center about six weeks ago and talked about how it gave her pleasure amid some difficulties she was facing.
‘She [Glasgow] he had just been through some stuff and she was like, “No, I need to do something for myself,” Slaughter said. She needed to feel alive and be alive.
Her loved ones described her as a “beautiful soul.”
“Heather had an infectious laugh that called and just had you in stitches and she’s always full of life, and she’s tenacious,” Slaughter said.
‘She didn’t have quit in her. She had all kinds of things that would continue and she has some difficulties that just continue. She just felt like her whole life was trouble after trouble after trouble, and she hadn’t just given up on it like she was determined.
“She was not just determined to survive. She was determined to survive with a smile on her face.
Glasgow chats with the instructor before her tandem parachute jump prior to her fatal jump
Glasgow is looking forward to it as it is high in the skies preparing for its earlier jump.
The site of Saturday’s skydiving tragedy in Sallisaw, OK
Glasgow seen here in this undated photo with her two children and a friend or relative
Weeks before her death, a video shows Glasgow during an earlier jump at the same facility, Adventure Skydiving Center, sharing her excitement before the tandem jump while covered in head-to-toe gear.
‘Are you ready to jump out of a plane?’ asked the instructor. ‘Why would you want to do that.’
She smiled and said, ‘Life,’ as she raised her hands, ‘Life.’
After the jump ended, Glasgow was full of giggles and overjoyed. The instructor asked him which was his favorite part, skydiving or parachuting. She replied: ‘the parachute…all day!’