Laverne Everett may have had 79 previous birthdays, but it's fair to say that this one was probably the worst.
To celebrate her 80th last May, the octogenarian chose to go skydiving, something she'd wanted to do for at least ten years. But the jump didn't go as planned, and now her sister has posted the video to YouTube to share, CBS Sacramento reports.
VIDEO AT TOP
While still on terra firma, Laverne says in the video that she's excited about the jump, which took place at the Parachute Center in Lodi, Calif. But when it's time to take the plunge, she appears to be [understandably] reluctant jump out of the plane, holding on to the sides of the aircraft. The man jumping with her finally frees her hands, and the duo tumbles.
But something goes terribly wrong early in the jump. Laverne appears to nearly fall out of the harness, and her partner hangs on to her for dear life.
“The upper harness came off, you know," she said in a recent interview with CBS Sacramento, available below. "Just slipped down, it was just the lower harness, is all I had.”
Fortunately, the parachute deploys and the pair lands. The video ends with people on the ground rushing over to the aid of the Laverne and her partner.
“This happened a long time ago and everything worked as advertised,” Bill Dause, the owner of the Parachute Center, said in a statement to ABC News. “No one got hurt or injured.”
But the Parachute Center has had its share of accidents. According to CBS Sacramento, at least eight people have died at the Parachute Center in the last decade, most recently in April.
News10 reports that the facility may have to pay $900,000 in fines to the FAA for incidents unrelated to Everett's. Additionally, News10 also reports that the company is facing at least three civil lawsuits.
ABC News spoke to the Federal Aviation Administration about this specific incident, so click over there to learn about what the FAA is doing about Everett's jump.
According to the United States Parachute Association, 21 fatal skydiving accidents were recorded in the United States in 2010. In 2009, 16 fatal accidents were recorded.