THE 14,000-Foot MIRACLE

The skydiver fully expected to die when her parachute failed to open. Instead, she’s writing the next chapter of her life

Ryan Hockensmith

Emma Carey is flying, and she is so happy. She is 14,000 feet above the Earth, gripping the straps of her parachute pack like an excited kid on the way to her first day of school. Oh my God, I’m going to become a skydiver, she thinks, not knowing that just about the most terrifying thing a human being can experience is about to happen to her. She’s 20, an Australian kid travelling around Europe with her best friend, Jemma Mrdak. It is June 9, 2013, and Emma has no plans for what she’ll do when she returns home. It would oversimplify things to say her life was an open road because there was no road. Not yet, anyway. Earlier that morning, in Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland, she and Jemma climbed into…

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Reader’s Digest New Zealand (Digital) - 1 Issue, April 2025 / May 2025

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