A Dublin-based woman has died in a horrific skydiving accident while celebrating a trip of a lifetime.
Paulina Biskup - a Polish national who lived and studied in Dublin - took to the skies at the Aguapanela paragliding site in Roldanillo, west of Bogota, Colombia on Tuesday.
The 38-year-old was just minutes after taking off in a parachute when she ran into difficulties. As her parachute neared the ground, she slipped from her harness and plunged several feet through the air as horrified witnesses looked on.
In video footage from the scene, shrieks can be heard as her parachute collapses in on itself, sending her into the tall grass below, Mirror reports.
It is believed she died from the hard impact with the ground. Rescue teams rushed to the scene but were unable to revive her, according to local media.
Paulina, who lived in the Irish capital and graduated from Trinity College Dublin in 2010, had gone to jump with her partner and a group of friends.
A paragliding event was taking place in the area at the time, but they were not taking part. Roldanillo is known as Colombia's "paragliding capital" due to its ideal conditions for the sport, and the Aguapanela launch site is popular for its breathtaking views and favourable air currents.
Authorities in Roldanillo said an investigation into the accident is underway.
Last year an American woman, who survived falling out of a plane after her parachute failed, described the ordeal in chilling detail. Jordan Hatmaker, from Virginia Beach, went up for one last jump of the day - but her parachute didn't open correctly, causing her to spin out of control and hit the ground at over 60mph.
She told the Mirror: "Everything was fine during freefall, but then I pulled my chute. The pilot chute wrapped around my right leg a few times. I tried desperately to get it off. Time slowed down for me but I was falling so fast. I thought I had a lot more time than I did. I was trying to get it off my leg, and then I tried to get my shoe off but I had double knotted my shoelaces because in a previous jump one of my shoes fell off. (The instructor actually caught it in the air.)"
"At 750ft the automatic activation device fired, which is like a reserve parachute which opens when you get to a certain altitude without deploying the main parachute.
"My reserve parachute came out which jolted enough to make my main parachute come out. But the two canopies were flying next to each other, dragging away from each other and started me spinning into the ground. This was 200ft above the ground. It happened so fast. I was completely out of control. I just remember thinking that the ground was coming up really really fast. And I remember thinking: 'This is going to hurt.'"
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