By Noah Chast, KTVZ:
Fifteen-year U.S. Forest Service wildland firefighter Ben Elkind is at his home in Redmond, recovering from a parachute training accident.
It’s a situation he knew was possible, but never thought would be a reality.
“You just think that you’re not going to hurt right so, I’m kind of surprised,” Elkind told NewsChannel 21 on Monday.
Elkind, a nine-year smokejumper, was transitioning from the low-performance parachute he’s familiar with to a new, high-performance chute.
While training near Black Butte Ranch on Sunday, May 15, he came into his landing zone too fast, and with low winds, he dropped from nearly 20 feet in the air.
“My left leg just kind of — the femur head shot out through the socket, and the way it did that — I don’t want to say shattered, but it broke my pelvis into like six pieces in the back,” Elkind said.
He said there were no issues with the parachute itself, but he was still adjusting to using it.
Read the full story here.