Mackenzie Wethington, 16, Survives 3,500 Drop During Skydive: 'God Caught Her'
'She's a Miracle Child,' Says Father Joe; Teen Released From Intensive Care
Mackenzie Wethington, a 16-year-old girl from Joshua, Texas, is being called a "miracle child" after she survived a 3,500-foot drop during her very first skydive Saturday. The teen had traveled to Chickasha, Okla. with her father Joe for her birthday present, a skydive, but her parachute didn't open and she slammed into the ground.
Mackenzie Wethington and her father had gone to Pegasus Air Sports Centre in Oklahoma because the state allows 16-year-olds to skydive with a parent's permission. Although it was the teen's "dream" to skydive, her sister told WFAA, it was a miracle that she came away from the 3,500-foot drop with broken bones and internal bleeding.
"She hit the ground hard," Meagan Wethington said. "God caught her."
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Even her recovery has been astounding. Despite cuts to her liver and kidney, hospital staff revealed that Mackenzie transferred out of intensive care with no surgery.
"Amazingly enough, she required no surgery for any of those injuries," Dr. Jeffery Bender, who supervised her treatment at Oklahoma University Medical Center, said at a press conference Tuesday. "I have no idea how she survived."
Wethington jumped after her father did that fateful Saturday and did a static line jump, which is usually recommended for beginner skydivers because the parachute opens automatically. However, when the parachute malfunctioned, the teen went into a spinning freefall and couldn't figure out how to open the backup parachute.
"The guy with the radio on the ground is trying to talk her out of what's going on and telling her what to do and she can't do it," Joe Wethington told CNN. "She's going too fast and in different directions she can't reach up and grab it anyway and then when she goes into the spiral he keeps telling her to cut away to release the shoot and to pull the reserve."
Both father and daughter had sat through six hours of training before making the dive. Bob Swainson, the owner of Pegasus Air Sports Centre, said the blame rests on Wethington for the fall.
"She didn't do what she was supposed to do," he said.
The Wethington family has hired an attorney to find out whether the parachute malfunctioned or if the 16-year-old is to blame. Joe Wethington, though, has pointed out that he is simply grateful to have his daughter after watching her plummet to the ground.
"She's a miracle," he told the "Today" show of the incident. "She's a miracle child."
