You’ve got to see this video to grasp the sheer insanity a skydiver literally hanging off a plane’s tail mid-flight. The clip, dropped by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau and reposted by @DailyLoud on X on December 11, 2025, exploded online with millions of views. It shows the jumper’s orange reserve parachute popping open right at the door of a Cessna Caravan, wrapping around the tail, and leaving them dangling at 15,000 feet like something out of a nightmare thriller. No edits, no fakes just raw, heart-pounding footage from onboard cameras.
A tweet from X.
Here’s the breakdown of what went down on September 20, 2025, over Tully in Queensland, Australia. The skydiver, an experienced jumper with over 2,000 leaps under their belt, was first out for a 16-way formation jump. As they climbed onto the roller door, their reserve handle caught on the wing flap. Boom the canopy deployed, yanking them back hard. They slammed into the horizontal stabilizer, got tangled, and hung there while the plane kept flying. The pilot felt a wild pitch-up, airspeed dropped, and called a mayday. Thirteen other jumpers bailed out safely, two stuck around to monitor, and the camera operator got knocked into freefall but pulled it together.
Now, the escape that saved everything. Trapped for nearly a minute, the skydiver grabbed their hook knife a small blade on their harness and sliced through 11 lines of the reserve chute. Free at last, they popped their main parachute, shook off a brief tangle with the remnants, and touched down with just minor leg injuries.
“The hook knife was not required by regulations at the time but proved lifesaving,”
noted ATSB Chief Commissioner Angus Mitchell in the report.
The pilot? Total pro. Despite the battered tail and shaky controls, they brought the Cessna back to Tully Airport without a hitch. The plane took serious damage to the stabilizer but stayed airborne. ATSB labeled it a “unique and extreme” mess-up, yet skydiving’s fatality rate hovers low at about 0.39 per 100,000 jumps, per USPA data. This one underscores why training pays off.
Gear like hook knives and solid prep turn disasters into survivals. When extreme clips hit your feed, hit up verified spots like atsb.gov.au before buying in. This jumper’s close call? Proof the system’s built tough.
