A ST CLEMENT couple are recovering in a Brittany hospital after plummeting thousands of feet to the ground when their skydiving parachute failed to open.

Kevin McIlwee, a maths and information technology teacher at De La Salle College, has a badly broken leg. His wife, Beverley, a general manager at the Ommaroo Hotel, has multiple injuries to both feet.

Their main parachute failed to open properly as they were strapped together in tandem after jumping from an aeroplane at 13,000 feet over the Brittany countryside.

The couple, who are both in their 40s, realised they were in trouble at 5,000 feet, when Mr McIlwee could not jettison the main parachute to allow their reserve parachute to open. Speaking to his wife on the headset, he told her to prepare for the worst, but after coming down in a field some three minutes later they were fortunate to have survived with no internal injuries.

The accident occurred on Sunday at the Vannes centre, the closest skydiving facility to Jersey and popular with the small number of local enthusiasts. Mr McIlwee is an experienced instructor with Channel Island Airsports and the tandem Flying Tigers and a veteran of more than 4,000 jumps. Mrs McIlwee took up the sport around five years ago.

by Christine Herbert