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A video recently posted to YouTube shows Laverne Everett celebrating her 80th birthday in an extraordinary way; skydiving. Everett celebrated her 80th last May and almost did not live to tell about her adventure. Everett had wanted to skydive for the previous ten years but never got around to it. Everett said that the jump did not go exactly as she had planned it. The jump occurred at Parachute Center in Lodi, California. On the video, while still grounded, Laverne said she was excited for what she was about to do. When it comes time to jump, Laverne shows some fear and holds onto the sides of the plane. There is a man who jumps with her, who pries her hands loose and the two jump from the plane.
During the first portion of the jump, a scary thing occurs as Laverne almost falls completely out of her harness. The man jumping with her has to hold onto her during the jump.
“The upper harness came off, you know,” Everett said. “Just slipped down, it was just the lower harness, is all I had.”
During the jump, her parachute does deploy, and the two jumpers reach the ground safely as witnesses rushed to their aid.
“This happened a long time ago and everything worked as advertised,” Bill Dause, the owner of the Parachute Center, said in. “No one got hurt or injured.”
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Over the past decade, eight people have passed away at the Parachute Center, with one of the deaths coming this past April. It has been reported that the Parachute Center might have to pay $900,000 to the FAA for issues not related to the Everett scare. The Parachute Center is also the subject of three civil lawsuits. In 2010, 21 fatal skydiving accidents were reported, according to the United States Parachute Association. There were 16 fatal accidents reported in 2009.
